ALTOONA - LOCATION AND DESCRIPTION.

Altoona is situated about thirty miles southwest of the geographical
center of the great state of Pennsylvania, just at the
eastern base of the Allegheny mountains; near the headwaters ofthe
Juniata river; the " Blue Juniata " of Indian song and legend, and on the
Pennsylvania railroad. It lies in the upper or western end of Logan valley, or "
Tuckahoe " as this vicinity was called in early days, in the central part of
Logan Township, in Blair County. By rail it is 117 miles east of Pittsburgh and
235 west of Philadelphia, although an air line would be one-fourth to one-third
less. Baltimore and Washington are 150 miles southeast and Buffalo 200 miles
directly north, but by rail the distance to these points is nearly twice as
great.

Originally laid out in a narrow valley, it has filled this and climbed
the hills on either side and grown in all directions, so that a
large part of it is built on hills of moderate elevation. The city
lines as now established embrace a territory two and one-fourth miles
long and one and one-fourth miles wide ; but it is built
up as a city a distance of four miles long and two miles
wide. Less than fifty years old, it has grown with such surprising
rapidity that it is now the eighth city in the state, in population,
and second to none in material prosperity.

The lowest ground in the, city is 1120 feet above the level
of the ocean and the hills rise 100 to 150 feet higher, making the site and
surroundings picturesque in the extreme and furnishing innumerable points of
observation, from which nearly the entire city may be taken in at one view; yet
in few places are the ascents so abrupt as to interfere with the laying out and
grading of streets and avenues. The railroad passes through the heart of the
city from northeast to southwest and the avenues are laid out parallel with the
tracks. Crossing these at right angles are thoroughfares of equal width
denominated streets; and both streets and avenues are given numerical names,
beginning at a base line and numbering in regular order from that. First avenue
is near the southeastern boundary of the city and First street near the
northeastern limit. To this general rule there are some exceptions, but on the
whole the city may be said to be regularly laid out.

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In the central part of the city, on the lower ground are located
the railroad company's machine and locomotive shops,
freight warehouse, passenger station and an immense hotel,
around which the business of the city clusters, this being the
"hub;" although the ever increasing business of the road has
necessitated the building of additional shops at two places in the
eastern suburbs.

Altoona is unique in having its site away from any considerable
stream of water, but to the northeast a short distance is the
Little Juniata, and to the southwest Mill Run, both of which
furnish a considerable quantity of pure mountain spring water,
while still farther to the west and south are Kittanning and Sugar
Run streams, the former being the source of supply for the
city water system.

The character of the buildings of Altoona is very creditable;
considering her youth. There are 7,000 to 8,000 dwellings within
city limits, inhabited by 36,000 industrious, frugal, well-informed,
cheerful and happy people, while more houses and
8,000 more people are just without the corporate lines. All taken
together make one thriving city of 44,000 inhabitants; and the
time is not far distant when its boundary lines will be extended
to include them all.

Aside from the business blocks, which are nearly all brick,
about three-fourths of the buildings are frame, a few are stone, and the
remainder brick or brick cased; nearly all are neat and comfortable; many are
more than this; while not a few are palatial in architectural design and finish,
the home of wealth and refinement. Eleventh avenue, on the northwest side of the
railroad, from Eleventh street to Seventeenth street, is the great comercial and
mercantile center, where real estate and rents are highest. Here are the banks,
newspapers, postoffice, the great dry goods stores and hotels, with the
passenger station but one square distant. The wholesale establishments are
principally on Eleventh street between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, and Green and
Eleventh avenues between Seventh and Ninth streets. The manufacturing district,
aside from the railroad shops, is on Ninth and Margaret avenues, west of
Seventeenth street; and this is also the location of the retail coal trade and
dealers in builders supplies, lime, sand, brick, terra cotta pipe, etc. Other
business centers of considerable importance are Twelfth street and Eighth
avenue, Eighth avenue and Ninth street and Fourth street and Sixth avenue. The
most desirable residence locations are on

The street car lines, City Passenger and Logan Valley, motive
power electricity since 1891 traverse Eleventh avenue from Ninth
to Eighteenth streets, Seventeenth and Bridge streets from Eleventh
to Eighth avenues, down the later to Fourth street, thence
to Sixth avenue and out Sixth to First street and beyond to Bellwood
junction; the entire length of Chestnut avenue from Eleventh
street to First street, and beyond to Juniata borough one
mile, and Bellwood seven miles northeastward; on Union and
Broad avenues, from Eleventh avenue to Thirty-first street, near
the new suburb Westmont; from the corner of Seventeenth street
and Eighth avenue to Seventh avenue, out Seventh avenue to
Twenty-sixth street, and along the street to Fifth avenue;
the corner of Twelfth street and Ninth avenue along the avenue
to Thirteenth street, along the street to Fifth avenue and along
this avenue to Thirty-first street, and southeastward to Lakemont
Park three miles, and Hollidaysburg, the county seat, six miles.

There are now over eight miles of finely paved streets in the
city, including the three kinds most popular, asphaltum, concrete
block and vitrified brick, extending over a large part of the best
business and residence portions of the town, and the coming season
will see this largely augmented. Altoona is well sewered;
having a sewer system, recently completed, capable of meeting
the requirements of a city of 100,000 inhabitants.

Altoona is supplied with water from two mountain streams
which empty into the gathering and storing reservoirs at Kittaning
Point, a picturesque spot six miles west of the city, within
the circle of the famous "Horse-shoe" bend of the Pennsylvania
railroad and under the very shadow of the Alleghenies' crest.
The drainage area is wood covered mountain sides and the water
consequently pure and cold and sweet. It is brought to Altoona
through large iron pipes by force of gravity which is sufficient to
carry it to all residences in the city. The water works are owned
and managed by the municipality.

The city building is situated on the corner of Twelfth
street and Thirteenth avenue. Here the mayor has his office, the police
headquarters and city prison are here, and the office of water superintendent
and street commissioner as well as the council chambers, where common and select
councils meet regularly twice a month.

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The other city officials have their offices in
rented rooms pending the erection of a magnificent new City Hall
to cost $100,000. 000.

Altoona, although the metropolis of the county, containing
more than half the total population, is not the county seat, not
having been in existence when that was established at Hollidaysburg,
then a thriving borough. The court house and county
offices are easily accessible, however, by electric cars which arrive
and depart every quarter hour between six o'clock in the morning
and ten o'clock at night.

The society of Altoona is excellent, and the people are of
more than average intelligence; the undesirable foreign element,
so predominant in some cities, is almost entirely absent here. The
citizens of foreign birth are mostly German and English, of the
educated class, and are among the most respected. There is a
church building to every eight hundred of population, nearly all
denominations being represented, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish,
all well attended. The public schools are of the best and there
are beside, a number of parochial and private schools, kindergardens
and commercial schools.

Every citizen of Altoona has a business, profession, or trade,
and works at it; few drones or idle people are found in this busy
hive of industry. As might be expected where industry reigns,
the people are law abiding, peaceful, moral; criminals are few,
crimes rare, litigation not popular. While there are a number
of legal gentlemen resident here it is a noticeable fact that most
of them depend more upon the results of successful business ventures
for their income, than on fees received from legitimate law
practice.

While from its elevation, it might be inferred that the climate
would be severe, the facts are otherwise; the mountains break the
force of the north and west winds and the winters are seldom more
rigorous than on lower levels in the same latitude elsewhere, and
the usually prevailing weather of spring and fall is marvelously
delightful. The air is so pure and stimulating, so full of ozone,
that to those in good health mere existence is a delicious luxury
and even the invalid enjoys living until the last.

On the whole
Altoona is a veritable ''gem of the mountain," beautiful to view and pleasant to
live in; its excellent qualities are only beginning to be appreciated and
understood. As time passes it will continue to grow in size and in the
affections of those who have their homes here, or who for limited periods visit
the place, to feast their eyes on the beauties of nature so lavishly displayed,
and breathe the pure invigorating air.

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SUBURBS AND SURROUNDINGS.

Millville, which, as the term is used, comprises Allegheny
and part of Westmont and is all that suburb lying southwest of
the city line at Twenty-seventh Street and northwest of Ninth
Avenue and the Hollidaysburg Branch Railroad.. The greater
part of this suburb, as well as part of the city now within the
Fifth Ward, was plotted and laid out by Dr. S. C. Baker and
called Allegheny about the year 1870; but a smaller plot adjoining
Allegheny on the west was called Millville, and as Millville,
the town on the two plots, has been known for twenty years.
However, the railroad station on the branch at this point, about
one and one-fourth miles from the Altoona Station, is called
Allegheny Furnace. Millville is quite level and is building up
rapidly, being a very pleasant residence place. It is not incorporated.

Westmont, just west of Millville, is growing up very rapidly
and seems destined to become the most popular suburb of Altoona.
This results largely from the enterprise and liberality of its
projector, E. H. Flick, Esq., who sells the lots for a very low
price and on easy terms, and who has not only set shade trees
along the streets and avenues, but has built a large number of
fine houses there. The City Passenger Railway extends from
the heart of the city, along Broad Avenue, through Millville and
to within a few squares of Westmont, while the main line of the
Pennsylvania Railroad skirts it on the northwest, and a station
will doubtless be located there at an early day. It will be about
two miles west of the Altoona Depot.

Northeast of Eighteenth Avenue and east of Eleventh Street
is a populous district, outside the city line, known as Fairview.
It is situated on ground considerably elevated above the central
parts of Altoona, is a pleasant place to live and is the home of a
great many employes of the Pennsylvania Railroad Car Shops.

Oakton lies on high ground west of Eleventh Street and northwest
of Twenty-fourth Avenue. -. Millertown is just northwest
of the Fifth Ward beyond Eighteenth Avenue and west of
Washington Avenue and Eighteenth Street. It has about 500
inhabitants and is soon to be incorporated with some of the surrounding
territory as a Borough by the name " Logan. " - Newburg
is northwest of Millertown, along the Dry Gap Road, which
is a continuation of Washington Avenue over the mountains to
Ashville, Cambria County.

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Collinsville is the oldest town in Logan Township and was
the location of the Postoffice from 1817 until Altoona was founded.
It lies southeast of the Sixth Ward of Altoona, in Pleasant Valley,
and is reached by an extension of Sixteenth Street from First
avenue, the distance being but one-half mile. Only about 200
people live here and it presents a decayed and ancient appearance,
but in the immediate vicinity are several fine farms with good
farm buildings and large thrifty orchards, and Pleasant Valley is
not a misnomer.

Juniata is an incorporated Borough and lies about one-half mile
Northeast of the city line at North Second Street and Chestnut
Avenue, on the north side of the railroad. It is the location
of the Juniata Locomotive Shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad
Company. But the borough lines do not take in the works, as
the Company prefers being on the outside. There had been a
small village occupying part of the present site of Juniata for ten
or more years prior to the erection of the Locomotive Shops,
known as Belleview, but not incorporated. On the erection of
these shops, however, in 1889 buildings sprung up like magic
around them, and little Belleview had such a boom that she outgrew
herself and her name. "Juniata" was adopted as the most
appropriate name and a borough charter was obtained August
7th, 1893. The Logan Valley electric cars run here from Altoona
every few minutes and every half hour a car goes to Bellwood,
five miles northeastward. Juniata has in addition to the Locomotive
Shops a large iceing station of Armour & Co., several
stores, a fine brick school building and three churches, also a
postoffice, which, as there is another Juniata in the State, is called
Kipple. The southern terminus of the Altoona, Clearfield and
Northern Railroad is at Juniata, the passenger station being on
the line of the Electric Railway and near the entrance to the
Shops.

East End, Greenwood and Pottsgrove are all east of the
Eighth Ward of Altoona and on the south-eastern side of the
railroad. They have a combined population of nearly 1,000 and
will eventually all grow together and be taken into the city, as
the Twentieth Ward perhaps. One George Pottsgrove built a
dam on the little mountain stream here many years ago and operated
a small saw and grist mill until his water right was purchased
by the Altoona Gas and Water Company and the water piped to
the new town of Altoona in 1859.

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Llyswen is the latest suburb to be added to Altoona and lies
farthest from the city, being on the Logan Valley Electric Railway,
about one mile south of the city line at Fifth Avenue and
Twenty-seventh Street. This is intended to be the aristocratic
suburb, and lots are sold with some restrictions as to buildings
and use. A number of fine cottages have already been erected
there and a fine station and waiting room by the Logan Valley
people, whose cars pass in either direction every fifteen minutes.

All these suburbs are in Logan Township, and with the possible
exception of Llyswen should be taken into the city.

Eastward from Altoona two and one-half miles, on the
Pennsylvania Railroad is Blair Furnace Station, a small village
containing no stores nor business places. It is the nearest station
to Juniata and but half a mile distant. . The next station eastward
is Furnace. There is no village at this station, but
nearby is the old "Sabbath Rest'' Furnace and a postoffice with
that hallowed name, given to it in the early days because the
owner of the furnace banked the fires on Saturday night and allowed
his men to rest on Sunday, contrary to the custom of most
other iron manufacturers at that time.

Westward from Altoona on the Pennsylvania Railroad
is Kittanning Point, six miles distant. No town here nor
stores, but there are coal mines and villages a few miles up the
gulch and this is their nearest railroad station. The famous
Horse Shoe Bend is here and the reservoirs which contain
Altoona's water supply. The road begins to ascend the highest
mountain here and the grade is steep most of the way for seven miles
to Bennington just on the county line and only a small place.
An iron furnace used to stand here, but it has been recently
torn down. Leaving Bennington the road passes under the apex
of the mountain by a tunnel one mile long and the town of
Gallitzin is reached, fourteen miles from Altoona, in Cambria County
and within the Mississippi Valley. Gallitzin has 1,000 to 1,200
inhabitants and is an important mining town. Three miles farther
west is Cresson, only a small place of 500 to 600 inhabitants,
but growing. It is the location of the Cresson Springs Hotel, an
immense hostelry owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad and popular
as a resort. Two railroads branch off from here to the
northward, to Coalport and Ebensburg. . -. The next few stopping
places are small mining towns, and the first place of importance
is Johnstown, famous the world over for its awful flood horror,
May 31st, 1889. Also famous as the location of

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the Cambria Iron Company, one of the largest iron and steel
manufacturers in the United States. Johnstown is thirty-nine
miles west of Altoona. .-. The other places of importance between
Altoona and Pittsburg are Blairsville Intersection, where
the West Penn and the Indiana Branches of the Pennsylvania
Railroad diverge from the main line, Latrobe, Greensburg, Jeannette,
Irwin and Braddock.

Southward from Altoona the Hollidaysburg and Morrison's
Cove and Williamsburg Branches of the Pennsylvania Railroad
extends to Eldorado, three miles from Altoona, 200 to 300 inhabitants.
.-. Duncansville, six miles, 1,000 inhabitants. .-.
Hollidaysburg seven miles, the County seat and containing, with
its sister borough Gaysport, 4,000 people. .-. Roaring Spring
seventeen miles, where there are extensive paper mills and flouring
mills. . -. Martinsburg twenty- miles, in the southern part
of the County and in a rich agricultural district. .-. Henrietta
a small place, formerly of some note as the location of some of
the Cambria Iron Company's mines and quarries. From here it
is but three miles across the mountain to the Huntingdon and
Broad Top Railroad in Bedford County. Eastward from
Hollidaysburg the Williamsburg Branch extends some fifteen
miles along the Frankstown Branch of the Juniata past Frankstown,
the oldest town in the County, but now half deserted and
fallen to decay, with but 100 to 200 inhabitants. .-. Williamsburg,
a place of 1,000 inhabitants, noted as the birth place of a
number of prominent citizens now of Altoona. It was formerly
on the main line of travel between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
The old Pennsylvania Canal passed that way, and before the
locomotive's whistle had been heard in a dozen Pennsylvania
towns, steam packets sailed past this then thriving burg at the
rapid rate of four to five miles per hour.

Northward from Altoona the Altoona, Clearfield and Northern
Railroad, starting from Juniata, climbs up the mountain twelve
hundred feet in a distance of six miles to Wopsononock, where
there is a good hotel and other features which make it a popular
summer resort. Excursion trains loaded with pleasure seekers
leave the Juniata Station hourly on Sundays, during the summer,
for this resort. A considerable amount of lumber and coal is
brought down the mountain in the winter over this road. It extends
several miles beyond Wopsononock but does not reach any
town of importance, although the intention is to continue it to
Phillipsburg.

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Northwest from Altoona, starting from Sixteenth Street and
Eleventh Avenue, long before the city was laid out, a country road extended up what is now called Washington Avenue, and
beyond to the foot of the mountain two miles and then obliquely
to the mountain top four miles, to the ''Buckhorn,'' which is the
name applied to an old tavern at the summit of the mountain. This was the old Dry Gap Road and is still so called. From the
Buckhorn it begins to descend the mountain and four miles farther Ashville in Cambria County is reached. The Blair County line is
at the summit of the Allegheny mountains, a few hundred yards east of the Buckhorn.

History of Altoona.

An exposition of the present status of a city leads naturally to
inquiry regarding its history and growth. This inquiry we shall
meet and endeavor to satisfy in the following historical sketch:

The decade between 1850 and 1860 was a most eventful one
in the history of the United States. It witnessed the opening era
of successful and general railroad building and the culmination
of the causes which led up to the great civil war. At the commencement
of this ten year period Altoona had her birth, at its
close she was a flourishing Borough of 3,500 inhabitants, standing
where before was only forest, sterile fields and one poor farm
house. The 224 acres of farm and woodland, on which the original
Altoona was built and which is now principally included
between Eleventh and Sixteenth Streets and Fourth and Fourteenth
Avenues, constituted the farm of David Robeson and was
not worth more than $2,500 for farming purposes at that time,
but the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, then pushing to completion
their all-rail route from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, and
looking for a site for their shops wanted it and therefore Mr.
Robeson, by a fortunate early discovery of the fact, was able to
obtain his own price for it.

Archibald Wright, of Philadelphia, acting presumably for the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company, though just what relation he
sustained to it is not clear, purchased the Robeson farm of 223
acres and 123 perches for $ 11,000. The deed was dated April
24th, 1849 and is recorded at Hollidaysburg in Deed Book, Vol.
" B, " page 441. The boundaries of the farm were about on the
present lines of Eleventh street from Fourth to Fourteenth avenues

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on the northeast and Sixteenth street between same avenues on
the southwest, Fourth avenue from Eleventh to Sixteenth streets on the southeast
and Fourteenth avenue between the same streets on the northwest. On this tract
of land original Altoona was laid out during the latter part of the year 1849,
and the plot, as laid out, was acknowledged by Archibald Wright, in
Philadelphia, February 6th, 1850, but was not recorded until February 10th, 1854, at the
time the young town was organized into a Borough. This original plot is on record
now in Hollidaysburg in Deed Book, Vol. " E, " page 167, It is on parchment and
the original is pasted into the book. At the same time another plot, almost an
exact counterpart, was recorded as the
"official " plot of the Borough. On these early plots the streets and avenues
have names instead of numbers
.

Altoona in this plot is described as lying in '' Tuckahoe Valley,"
that being the name applied to this upper end of Logan
Valley, which extends to Tyrone. Adjoining the Altoona plot at
that time was the John McCartney farm on the northwest, the
McCormick and Andrew Green farms on the northeast, the William
Bell farm on the southeast and the William Louden farm on
the southwest. The Louden and Green farms were soon after
plotted and offered for sale in building lots, and later all the McCartney
and most of the Bell farms have gone the same way. At
the time of the founding of Altoona the Pennsylvania Railroad
Company was a young corporation, their charter having only
been granted in 1846, and they had not yet completed their road
from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, although it was surveyed and in
process of construction. It was completed to Altoona from the
east, single track, on the same line as now in 1850 and extended
from here to Y Switches near Duncansville and one mile from
Hollidaysburg, and from there trains ran over the Allegheny
mountains on the old Portage Railroad, a state institution completed
in 1833. The Altoona Passenger Station stood near the
corner of Ninth avenue and Twelfth street until 1854, when the
Pittsburg Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad was completed
past Kittanning Point on its present line and a new depot was
built at the present location. The first depot on the corner of
Thirteenth street and Tenth avenue was a two-story brick building
and was replaced by the present structure in 1887. The
Logan House was built in 1854-5 by the Railroad Company, but
did not extend back to Eleventh avenue as now although it was
an immense affair and, at that time, greatly out of proportion to
the little village in which it stood.

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The two lines of the railroad west from the city, the one completed
and the other being graded, diverging as they did then is
accountable for the peculiar wedge shape of the site of the Company's
first shops, and the fact that the avenues on the northwest
and southeast sides of the railroad are not parallel but diverge at
an angle of about thirty degrees from Eleventh street westward.

No lots were sold in the new town until 1831, and the first
deed made, as the records at Hollidaysburg show, was February
11th, 1851, for two lots on the corner of Twelfth avenue and
Thirteenth street to the First Presbyterian Church, price $100 for
the two. If any earlier deeds were made they were not recorded.

The first residence in Altoona was of course the old Robeson
farm house which was of logs and stood within the square
bounded by Tenth and Eleventh avenues and Thirteenth and
Fourteenth streets. The first building erected after Altoona was
laid out was a rough board one to be used as an office for the
railroad contractor and a boarding house for the men; it also stood
in the square last mentioned, near the old farm house.

Beginning in 1851
lots sold rapidly and buildings went up
on every side; the new town grew so fast that early in 1854
when but little over three years old it was incorporated as a
borough with a population of about 2,000 people. Churches
and schools were built, hotels, stores and a bank were opened,
a newspaper was started in 1855, and everything prospered
from the very start. A plot laid out by Andrew Green,
northeast of Eleventh street and called Greensburg, was
taken into the Borough in 1855.

In 1859 a Gas and Water Company was formed by private
parties and they constructed a storage reservoir on the hill at
the corner of Twelfth street and Fifteenth Avenue and piped
water to it from Pottsgrove; laid mains in the principal
streets to carry water to the consumers. They also erected
gas works on Eleventh avenue below Ninth street. Water
and gas were supplied by this company first on December
l5th of that year. Simultaneously with the water works
came the organization of fire companies and a fire engine
was purchased, the first being a hand engine.

The census of 1860 showed the borough's population to be
3,591. Then came the great Rebellion and Altoona was a
place of considerable importance, furnishing cars and engines
to transport soldiers and munitions of war, as well as her full
quota of men to defend the Union. All through that four

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years' period Altoona grew and throve. After the war closed
the citizens erected a handsome monument in Fairview cemetery
to commemorate her fallen heroes.

The city charter was procured in February, 1868, the
bounds being extended so as to take in the territory northeast
to First street, southeast to First avenue, southwest to Twenty-seventh
street and northwest to Eighteenth avenue, with a
population exceeding 8,000. In 1870 the census takers found
10,610 people here. In 1870 a daily paper, the Sun, made its
appearance. In 1868 a market house was built at the corner
of Eleventh avenue and Eleventh street, later converted into
an opera house. By this time there were three newspapers
here, two banks, thirteen churches, a number of good hotels,
a large machine shop and car works, additional to the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company's plant, and soon after (1872) a
rolling mill was erected. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company
was also obliged to enlarge their works at this time
(1869-70), and, the original grounds reserved being completely
occupied with shops, tracks, switches, etc., a larger tract
of land was purchased along Chestnut avenue below Seventh
street and the car shops were erected at First to Fourth
streets. In 1872 the city purchased from the Gas and Water
Company their water pipes and water franchise and proceded
to build a reservoir at Kittanning Point and lay a 12-inch
pipe from there to the storage reservoir constructed on First
avenue between Twelfth and Thirteenth streets. About the
same time Eleventh and Eighth avenues were macadamized,
some sewers constructed, and the city issued its first bonds,
$200,000 in 1871 and $150,000 in 1873, to meet the large expenditures
thus incurred.

The years 1870, 1871 and 1872 were fruitful of many new
enterprises in Altoona; new businesses were established, new
churches built, several building and loan associations organized,
two new banks opened, the rolling mill built, etc., but
the panic of 1873, together with the failure of the largest
banking firm of the city, in that year, put a damper on many
business ventures and retarded the city's growth somewhat,
as did also the great strike and railroad riots of 1877. Yet
in 1880 the official government census showed that the place
had nearly doubled in the preceding decade, 19,710 people
being found resident here. In 1878 a park and Fair ground
was enclosed at Broad and Twenty-seventh streets and the

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Blair County
Agricultural Society held a fair there which
was a great success. But the next year failing to get the
State Fair to exhibit here none whatever was held and in
1880, the weather being unfavorable, the fair was a failure
and the Fair ground was never used for such purposes again.
It has since been sold out in lots and thickly built upon and
the Agricultural Society now hold their fairs at Hollidaysburg.
This is the only enterprise that ever failed in Altoona
permanently.

In 1882 the first street railway was completed and opened for
traffic (July 4th). In 1880 a telephone exchange was located
here, in 1886 an electric light company and July 4th, 1891, electricity
was made the propelling power for the street cars, so at
this date Altoona was fully abreast of the times in the use of electricity
for all purposes.

In 1888 the need of a complete and comprehensive sewer system was fully
realized and the work of providing for it begun. Since that time the four
natural drainage areas of the city have been supplied with large main sewers,
and now it is believed no better sewered city can be found in the state,
although the work of laying smaller branches and feeders has not yet been
completed
.

In 1889 a large silk mill was erected on Ninth avenue at
Twenty-fifth street along the Hollidaysburg Branch Railroad, and
during the same years several large business blocks were built in
the heart of the city, the Masonic Temple, Phoenix Block, etc.

In 1889, it having
become apparent that the macadamized streets were not suitable for a city of
Altoona's size and importance, Eleventh avenue was finely paved
with asphalt blocks between Eleventh and Seventeenth streets, and during
the same and following years many other avenues were paved,
asphalt and vitrified brick being used on some of them, so at this time the
city streets are well paved in the best business sections and the work
of paving additional streets and avenues is going steadily on.

In 1889-90, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company was again obliged to
enlarge their plant and they purchased a large tract of land at Juniata, below
the car shops, on which they erected extensive locomotive works. About the same
time a new railroad was projected and completed to Wopsononock, a beautiful
pleasure resort, six miles north of Altoona, and later extended to the coal
fields of Cambria county; Clearfield and the north being its ultimate
destination
.

In 1893 a new Electric Passenger Railway Company was organized,
" The Altoona and Logan Valley," and constructed
electric roads to Hollidaysburg six miles southeast and to Bellwood
seven miles northeast, thus furnishing convenient and
cheap transportation to the county seat and other nearby towns.
At the same time the same company constructed a beautiful park,
lake and picnic grounds at Lakemont, midway between Altoona
and Hollidaysburg, furnishing a place of recreation and amusement
of incalculable benefit to the residents of the city and providing
an additional source of profit to the road. May 1st, 1895, a
paid Fire Department superseded the volunteers in the work of protecting
the city from the ravages of fire.

Population.

The population of Altoona has previously been referred
to and given in round numbers as 44,000, which is believed to
be as nearly correct as it can be told without a new count, as
the number is increasing daily. This of course includes the
suburbs. A careful census taken by the directory canvassers
in May, 1895, made the population of the different wards and
suburbs as follows:

Since the foregoing census over 200 new houses have
been erected and occupied within the territory embraced.
The steady growth of Altoona within city limits is shownfrom
the Government Census as follows: Population in 1860 (the first after it was
founded).................................. 3,591Population in 1870
..............................................................................10,610Population in
1880 ..............................................................................19,710Population
in
1890 .............................................................................30,260

The total population of Blair county, 1890, was 70,866,
and now it cannot be less than 80,000. Population of the
State of Pennsylvania, 5,258,014. Only nineteen counties inthe State have a population equalling or exceeding that of
Blair.

Assessed Valuation of Altoona.

Valuation of any place, as shown by the roll, gives but
a very imperfect idea of its real wealth, yet it forms a basis
or fair estimates. One portion of our wealth is not taxed
and can therefore only be guessed at; this consists of thestock of goods in shops and stores, furniture and fixtures
which do not go with the real estate; this probably amounts to
more than $5,000,000 in Altoona.

The valuation of the entire county in 1895 was $31,252,097, from which it will be seen that Altoona City proper pays almost one-half the county tax and if the city limits were extended, so as to take in the suburbs which should be included, her valuation would be considerably more than one-
half that of the entire county.

Dates of Important Events in Altoona.

The first permanent
white settlements of any account in the immediate vicinity of Altoona were made
about the year 1810, although Thomas and Michael Coleman are said to have
settled in Logan Township as early as 1775, and Hugh and John Long to have
resided in Pleasant Valley in 1788.

Altoona was
projected in 1849 and laid out in town lots by Archibald Wright of Philadelphia,
the same year, but he sold no lots until 1851.

The deed of the
land from David Robeson to Archibald Wright is dated April 24th,
1849.

The plot of Altoona
was acknowledged by Mr. Wright, before an alderman in Philadelphia, February
6th, 1850.

The Pennsylvania
Railroad Company began building their shops here in 1850 it is said, although
the deed for the ground on which they stood was not made by Mr. Wright until
August 6th, 1851.

The first lots sold
by Archibald Wright, after he had plotted the town, were two on the corner of
Twelfth avenue and Thirteenth street to the trustees of the First Presbyterian
Church, for the price of one hundred dollars, the
deed being dated February 11th, 1851.

77

The first house was
erected in Altoona in 1851 on Tenth avenue between
Thirteenth and Fourteenth streets. John B. Westley, the carpenter and
contractor, is still living in the city.

The first train of
cars came into Altoona in 1850 from the east, and September 17th, 1850, cars ran
through to Duncansville, and December 10th, 1850 to Pittsburg; crossing the
mountains over the Alllegheny Portage which belonged tothe State. The
Hollidaysburg Branch was then the main line.

The Mountain
Division, from Altoona west, via Kittanning Point, was not completed until 1854.
The line was originally a single track.

The first passenger
station was a frame building and stood on Ninth avenue between Twelfth and
Thirteenth streets. It was moved to the north corner of Twelfth street and used
for a fire engine house. The second floor is now Logan Hall.

The first president
of the Pennsylvania Railroad, with whom Altoona had any concern, was J. Edgar
Thompson.

The first
postoffice in this vicinity was at Collinsville, from 1817 to 1851; during the
latter year it was removed from there and established under the new name at
Altoona.

Altoona was
organized as a borough in February, 1854.

The first Burgess
of Altoona was George W. Patton.

Altoona became a
city in February, 1868.

The first mayor of
the city was General George Potts.

The first stores in Altoona were those of Bernard
Kerr , father of R. A.O.
Kerr, Loudon & Feree and Adlum & Irwin. Mr. Kerr kept the first one in
the old log farm house of David Robeson.

The first druggist
was George W. Kessler; he beganbusiness in Altoona in
1853.

The first doctor
was Gabriel D. Thomas, who resided in Pleasant Valley prior to the founding of
Altoona, and who built one among the first residences in the new
town.

The first lawyer
was William Stoke, it is said, but he had no office here and only came to
transact some business for the Pennsylvania Railroad, whose attorney he was. L.
W. Hall, Esq., now of Harrisburg, was located here in 1855, and Col. D. J. Neff
in 1860.

The first preacher
to reside in Altoona was Rev. Henry Baker, who was pastor of the Lutheran church
at Collinsville

78

prior to the
beginning of Altoona, and who came here with his congregation during the second
year of its history.

The first public
house in the vicinity was a tavern, where the White Hall Hotel now stands ; it
was built by George Huff about the year 1834.

The first hotel
erected in Altoona was the Exchange, which stood on Tenth avenue between
Thirteenth and Fourteenth streets, where the Arlington now stands. It was kept
by John Bowman. Among the earlier hotels was the Altoona House, where the Globe
now stands; it was a frame building and burned down about the year
1887.

The first
school-house erected by the borough was built in 1834 on the corner of Seventh
avenue and Fifteenth street. Prior to the founding of Altoona a union church and
schoolhouse combined stood on the present corner of Sixteenth street and Union
avenue, just outside the early limits of Altoona. It was built during the year
1838 by the school directors of the township in conjunction with the Lutheran,
Presbyterian and Methodist denominations and served the double purpose of church
and school-house until the erection of churches and schools in Altoona. It is
now used as a church by the African Methodist Episcopal congregation.

The first city
superintendent of schools was John Miller.

The first church
building erected in the new town of Altoona was the First Presbyterian, on the
corner of Twelfth avenue and Thirteenth street in 1851. A minister from
Hollidaysburg preached here every alternate Sunday beginning in November, 1851.
It was a fair-sized frame building and was destroyed by fire in 1855. The
trustees disposed of the ground December 3, 1855, for $3,000 and it is now
occupied by the residence of the late William Murray. The congregation built on
their present location in 1854.

The first bank established in Altoona was that of
Bell, Johnson, Jack & Co. in 1853. It was later operated by William M. Lloyd
& Co .

The first newspaper
here was the Altoona Register, published for a
short time by William H. and J. A. Snyder, in the spring of 1855. It did not
survive the early frosts of that year, and after its suspension was succeeded by
the Tribune, January 1, 1856, McCrum & Allison,
proprietors.

The daily edition
of the Tribune was first issued April 14, 1874. It
was suspended April 14, 1975 and resumed January 28, 1878,

79

since which time it
has appeared regularly. The weekly has been published continuously since
itsestablishment, January 11, 1856.

The first daily
newspaper published in Altoona was the Sun, which
began a daily issue May 2, 1870, and suspended after seven months.

The Mirror was
first issued June 13, 1874; the Times May 21, 1884
and the Gazette April 8, 1892.

The first water
works in Altoona were owned and operated by the Altoona Gas and Water Company, a
private corporation, which began to supply the borough with water December 15,
1859.

The first gas for,
illuminating purposes, was furnished by the same company, beginning at the same
time ; rate per 1,000 feet then $3.00, now $1.20.

The water-works
were purchased by the city in 1872 and the first reservoir at Kittaning Point
constructed soon after.

The first fire
company, the Good Will, was organized in 1859, just prior to the completion of
the water-works.

The first fire
engine, a hand machine, was housed here October 22, 1859.

The first steam
fire engine in Altoona was purchased by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and
brought here in 1867.

A paid fire
department superseded the volunteers May 1, 1895.

The soldiers'
monument in Fairview cemetery was erected July 4, 1867.

The first city
directory of Altoona was issued in 1873 by Thomas H. Greevy, Esq. Since 1886
they have been published biennially by Charles B. Clark, Esq.

A county directory
was published in 1882.

The first street
improvements were the macadamizing of Eleventh and Eighth avenues in
1871-2.

The first good
street paving was laid on Eleventh avenue, in 1889, asphalt block, between
Eleventh and Bridge streets.

The first extensive
and systematic sewer building was begun in 1888; although the first sewer,
Eleventh avenue between Thirteenth and Fifteenth streets, was constructed in
1870. D. K. Ramey, contractor.

The first street
railway began carrying passengers July 4, I882; the line extending from First
street and Chestnut

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avenue to Eleventh
street to Eleventh avenue, up Eleventh avenue to Bridge street and on
Seventeenth street to Eighth avenue to Fourth street. Motive power---horses and
mules;equipment -- six small
cars.

Electricity was
first used here to propel street cars July 4, 1891. The Logan Valley Electric
Passenger Railway was completed and passengers carried to Hollidaysburg, June
14, 1893 and to Bellwood, July 1, 1894.

Telephone service
in Altoona began in March, 1880.

Electricity for
illuminating. in 1886. Streets lighted by electricity in 1888. For five years
prior to that they were lighted by gasoline lamps, although gas had been used at
a still earlier period.

The first planing
mill, except that of the Pennsylvania Railroad, was built prior to 1860 by
McCauley & Allison, on the corner of Green avenue and Eighth
street.

The most extensive
fire which had occurred in Altoona prior to 1896, was on April 16, 1869, burning
about half the square enclosed by Eleventh and Twelfth avenues and Thirteenth
and Fourteenth streets. It began on the corner of Eleventh avenue and Fourteenth
street ; loss $60,000 to $70,000; but on January 6, 1896, a fire at the corner
of Eleventh avenue and Eleventh street destroyed the Central Hotel and other
property to the value of $100,000.

The Rolling Mill
began operations in 1872.

The Silk Mill was
built in 1888-9 and began operations in the spring of 1889.

The Altoona,
Clearfield and Northern Railroad, formerly Altoona and Wopsononock was built in
1890-91.

Railroads of Altoona.

Being on the main
line of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the great double track trunk route between
the East and West, Altoona enjoys superior advantages in the matter of
transportation. Cars from every part of the Union come to Altoona with their
original lading, and freight may be billed through from here to the Pacific or
Gulf coast and the Dominion of Canada. Altoona being the terminus of a division,
all trains stop here to change engines and crews and take on through passengers
for east or west. A number of branch linesreach every corner of the county to the

81

South and east:
Williamsburg, Martinsburg, Roaring Spring, Henrietta, Newry; and the terminus of
the Morrison's Cove Branch at Henrietta is only about three miles from the
Huntingdon and Broad Top Railroad, extending from Huntingdon south to Bedford
and Hyndman, Pa., and Cumberland, Maryland.

At Bellwood, seven
miles eastward, connection is made with the Pennsylvania and North Western which
extends northwest through the rich coal regions of Cambria, Clearfield and
Jefferson Counties to Punxsutawney and there connects with the Rochester and
Pittsburg Railroad to DuBois, Bradford and Western New York.

At Tyrone, fourteen
miles northeast, three branches lead off to the north and northeast; the Tyrone
and Clearfield extending to Clearfield, Curwensville and DuBois; the Bald Eagle
Valley extending to Bellefonte and Lock Haven, connecting at the latter point
with the Philadelphia and Erie road for Williamsport on the east and Renova,
Emporium, Kane, Warren, Corry and Erie to the west; and the Tyrone and Lewisburg
branch extending northeast to Pennsylvania Furnace in Centre County.

At Huntingdon,
thirty-four miles east, connection is made with the Huntingdon and Broad Top for
Bedford and Cumberland, the latter on the line of the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad.

At Cresson, fifteen miles westward, two branches lead
off from the main line, one extending to Ebensburg, Spangler and Carrolltown,
and the other to Ashville, Frugality and Coalport .

There is also
another short road, the Altoona, Clearfield and Northern, extending from the
eastern suburb, Juniata, to Wopsononock mountain resort, and coal fields of
Cambria County, which bring considerable amount of coal and lumber to the city.
Another railroad is likely soon to be constructed to Altoona, coming from
Philipsburg on the north. Altoona, with her nearly 50,000 inhabitants is too
valuable a prize for railroad enterprise to remain long with but a single
through line.

The railroad
traffic passing through Altoona is immense The tonnage of the Pennsylvania
Railroad system for 1895 was about one-seventeenth of the entire tonnage of the
United States, and probably one-half of this passed through Altoona.

Twelve passenger
trains leave Altoona daily for the west and eleven for the east, and some of
these trains are composed of two or three sections; practically so many
additional complete trains.

Six passenger
trains depart each day for the southern part of the county over the branches
previously mentioned.

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The number of
freight trains leaving and arriving depends of course on the condition of trade,
crops, etc.

Altoona has one of
the largest freight yards in the country, being over five miles long and capable
of holding thousands of cars.

STATISTICAL OF THE
PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD .

Capital
stock....................................................
..........$139,301,550Miles of railroad owned and operated east of Pittsburg
and Erie....................................................................... ......4,490Miles of railroad owned and operated west of Pittsburg
and
Erie .................................................................................4,326

Total mileage of
owned, operated and leased lines................... 8,816 Number of tons of freight hauled on lines east of
Pitts- burg and Erie,
year ending Dec. 31, 1895 .............78,259,526Number of passengers carried in
1895............................37,452,437Value of shops
at Altoona, buildings and grounds, not including
machinery, about ................................$2,000,000Number of men employed in
Altoona shops, December roll, 1895; Machine Shops
4,051, Car Shops 2,364, Juniata Shops 789; Total
............................................................7,204Number of men employed on the three divisions entering here, who reside in Altoona;
estimated by taking 1/2Pittsburg and 1/3 of Middle Division
................................................1,880

Total Pennsylvania
Railroad employes in Altoona......................9,084

Monthly pay roll for shops
.................................................$325,000Monthly pay roll for Division. employes and trainmen
residing in
Altoona.........................................................75,000Amount paid out monthly
for material and supplies, about.......100,000 Total
amount of money put in circulation here monthly by the Railroad Company, about
...........................500,000

Altoona has two
lines of electric cars; both are under one management and the service is very
satisfactory.

The first road was
built in 1882 by the City Passenger Railway Company and was opened on the 4th of
July of that year with a notable demonstration. Electricity was not then in use
and horses were the motive power. The line at that time was about three miles
long, extending from First street

83

to Eleventh avenue
to Bridge street, to Seventeenth street, to Eighth avenue, to Fourth street
where the cars were turned on a turn-table and went back over the same route.
Soon afterward a branch was constructed from the corner of Eighth avenue and
Seventeenth street to Seventh avenue, to Twenty-fifth street.

In 1889 and 1890 a
line was constructed from the corner of Eleventh avenue and Bridge street to Eighteenth
street, to (Union avenue, to Broad street and along Broad street to city line at
Twenty-seventh street. The line was also extended from Fourth street and Eighth
avenue, to Sixth avenue, to Lloyd street, below First street.

In 1891 electricity
took the place of horses and a power house was erected on Nineteenth street between Ninth and
Margaret avenues.

In 1892 the Altoona
and Logan Valley Electric Passenger Railway Company was formed and in 1893 they
built a line to Hollidaysburg, six
miles long.

Early in 1894 they
built a line to Bellwood, seven miles.

The Hollidaysburg
line begins at the corner of Twelth street and Ninth avenue and extends along
Ninth avenue to Thirteenth street, along Thirteenth street to Fifth
avenue, along Fifth avenue
south-eastward to city line and beyond that to Hollidaysburg.

The Bellwood line
extends from the corner of Eleventh street and Eleventh avenue to Ninth street,
to Howard avenue, to Third street,
to Lexington avenue, to First street, to Chestnut avenue and north-eastward on
the country road to Juniata, and from there crossing the railroad, down the
valley of the Little Juniata - five miles farther to Bellwood.

The Logan Valley,
soon after its completion, secured a controlling interest in the City Passenger,
and the two roads are now operated
practically as one, under the same Superintendent.

In the city cars
run six minutes apart, and on the Logan Valley to and from Hollidaysburg, every
fifteen minutes, and to and from
Bellwood every half hour during the day and until a late hour at
night.

Fares in the city,
including a transfer if desired, over any of the City Passenger Lines are but
five cents, and the same charge is
made to Lakemout Park or Llyswen, and ten cents to Hollidaysburg.

84

To Juniata, the
fare is five cents and to Bellwood ten cents additional. No transfers are given
between the City Passenger and the Logan Valley.

Lines have also
been projected on other streets and avenues in the city beside those already
noted, and some of them are likely to be built soon, especially one up the Dry
Gap along Nineteenth street or on Washington avenue.

The Logan Valley
Company laid out and beautified a fine park with a large artificial lake at a
point midway between Altoona and Hollidaysburg which they called Lakemont, and
which has no equal for beauty in the state. It is visited daily in summer time
by hundreds and often by thousands of people, and in winter time the lake
affords excellent skating, no charge being made for admission at any time.

The rolling stock
of the two companies consists of twenty-five closed cars and thirty-six
open cars.

The number of employes is 175.

The capital stock of the City Passenger
is....................... $200,000And of the Logan Valley, authorized
$500,000 issued...... 375,000

Total stock outstanding............................. $575,000The number of passengers carried in 1895 was
2,800,000.

In addition to
being the location of the principal shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company,
the depot and base of supplies for engines, cars and furnishings, and the
headquarters of the General Superintendent, the Superintendent of Power and
Superintendents of other lesser departments, employing, in the aggregate, over
9,000 men, which would suffice alone for the foundation of a large city, Altoona
has other substantial advantages.

Situated on the
main line of this great trunk route between the East and West, she is surrounded
on all sides with the elements of wealth and prosperity. Large deposits of
bituminous coal and beds of fire clay to the north and west.

85

Iron ore to the
southeast; limestone in almost inexhaustible supply on three sides and mountains
of ganister stone nearby, indispensable in the manufacture of steel and formerly
imported from Europe. Lumber regions to the north, east and west, and a rich
agricultural country south. All reached and penetrated by the Pennsylvania
Railroad and branches or leased lines; with competing lines contemplating an
entrance, her future stability is assured. Altoona is also the natural distributing point for the territory within a radius of
forty to one hundred miles in every direction and is destined, at no distant
day, to become an important wholesaling city.

MANUFACTURING INTERESTS.

The manufacturing
interests of Altoona are now largely with the Railroad Company, and include the
production of engines, cars, both freight and passenger, and all kinds of
railroad supplies. We have in addition to this mammoth industry:

Two Electric
Passenger Railways with twenty-five miles of track; lines to Hollidaysburg on
the south and to Bellwood on the northeast.

One Express
Company.

Two Telegraph
Companies.

Two Telephone
Companies.

One large Electric
Light Plant, whose 200 two-thousand candle power arc lights, supplemented by
those of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, make Altoona the best lighted city
in the country.

One Gas Company,
with one of the finest plants in the state, making both coal and water
gas.

89

Pennsylvania Railroad Shops at Altoona.

These are the
largest railroad shops in the United States and employ over seven thousand men.
They consist of three distinct plants in different parts of the city.

The original plant
lies between Ninth and Tenth avenues, between Eleventh and Sixteenth streets,
and occupies twenty-eight acres of ground, the buildings having an actual floor
area of over ten acres. Originally all the departments were located here:
locomotive, freight car and passenger car, and machinery and supplies. This part
is now called the "Machine Shops," and includes the following shops and
departments:

One iron foundry,
size 1OOx250 feet, where all the iron castings used in the construction of cars
are made, with the exception of car wheels.

One brass foundry,
size 60x80 feet, where car wheel bearings and all brass castings are made.

One blacksmith shop
in part of old No. 2 round house containing twenty-six fires.

One wheel foundry,
size 73x140 feet, and a wing, 56x94 feet, with engine-house and boiler-house
adjoining. The cupola chamber of this foundry is 29x40 feet, and the ladle will
hold 20,000 pounds of melted iron.

One new wheel
foundry, size 66x160 feet, with cupola of forty tons capacity.

One boiler shop,
size 70x125 feet, with an addition or L, size 53x62 feet, and another building
used for finishing which is 58x124 feet. Also about two-thirds of the old No. 2
round-house is used as a boiler shop and devoted to repairs.

One flue shop,
45x126 feet, where the flues of the boilers are made and repaired.

One vise shop,
T-shaped, one part 60x250 feet, and the other 60x90; also a grinding room 60x120
feet. In this shop the different pieces of steel used in the construction of
engines are filed and ground smooth, and fitted with great precision, so as to
work perfectly in the position for which they are designed.

90

One air-brake shop,
size 60x75 feet, in which the air-brake machinery and supplies are made; also
steam guages, safety valves, etc.

Three erecting
shops, two of which are 66x350 feet, and one 52x356 feet, in which the
locomotive engines are put together and made things of life, power and beauty.
Traveling cranes, capable of lifting twenty- five tons weight are used to handle
the heavy pieces of iron and steel used here.

One paint shop,
36x300 feet, in which the engines, tanks and cabs are painted, ornamented and
varnished.

One tin and sheet
iron shop, size 67x150 feet, where all the tin work and many articles in sheet
iron and copper are made.

One telegraph
machine shop, size 48x60 feet, in which much fine work is done in the
manufacture and repair of telegraphic and electrical apparatus and
supplies.

One pattern shop,
size 70x140 feet, furnished with a 30-horsepower engine, planers, saws and other
wood-working machinery. Here all the patterns for the various castings used in
the shops are made. A pattern storehouse, 50x100 feet, is connected with this
shop.

One cab and tank
shop, size 42x105 feet, in which cabs and tanks are repaired, wheelbarrows and
cow-catchers made and other work done. The new cabs are now made at the Car
Shops.

One carpenter shop,
28x60 feet, with office attached. This is the headquarters of the carpenters who
repair roundhouses and shops, build signal towers, repair bridges,
etc.

One roundhouse for
Middle Division engines, size 235 feet in diameter, with turntable and
thirty-one tracks. Here engines are groomed, cleaned, examined and have slight
repairs made to them when required after each trip, and prepared for the next
run.

One roundhouse for
Pittsburg Division engines, size 300 feet in diameter, with turntable and
forty-four tracks. The men who take charge of the engines when they come in and
make them ready for succeeding trips are commonly called engine
hostlers.

One building, two
stories high in part and three stories in part, size 40x200 feet, used as
storehouse and testing room on first floor, and offices, testing department and
chemical laboratory on second and third floors. The store contains the various
small tools and supplies used about the shops and along the road between
Pittsburg and Philadelphia; and the storekeeper keeps a record of all material
used in the construction of everything made in the shops or furnished to other
shops along the road. Many thousands of dollars worth of goods pass through the storehouse monthly.

91

The testing
department examines and tests all material bought for use in the shops, before
it is accepted; this being done by both mechanical and chemical
tests.

The clerical
department, keeping a record of all the work done, cost of the same and the time
of the men, requires the assistance
of more than forty accountants.

The department of labor is also one of considerable
importance and requires over one hundred men loading , unloading and shifting cars and keeping the shop yard
in proper shape. The foreman of this branch has a small office building for his
use.

The watchmen form
another part of the service, not less important than the others, as it is their
duty to guard against fires and theft. Over forty of them keep watch of the
buildings, grounds and merchandise; sixteen by day and twenty-five by
night.

The different kinds
of work done here will be apparent from the foregoing, and some conception of
the amount from the following figures:

Average amount of
iron melted at the iron foundry for
the past ten years, 38,500,000 pounds, or 19,250 tons annually. This does not
include the wheel foundry.

In the car wheel foundry, 100,000 to 110,000 wheels are moulded annually, each wheel weighing 500 to
700 pounds.

In the boiler shop
an average of two locomotive boilers per week have been made for ten years past,
besides many stationary boilers and
repairs to thousands of both kinds annually.

The other
departments are conducted on a scale of equal magnitude.

G. W. Strattan is
Master Mechanic of these shops.

The Car Shops,
"Lower shops," as they are commonly called, though not so appropriately since
the erection of the Juniata shops still farther eastward, were the first
enlargement made by the company after the original site at Twefth street became
overcrowded. They were erected in 1869-70, and are situated between the main
line tracks and Chestnut avenue, from Seventh street eastward to a point below
First street, the lumber yard extending still further eastward for a distance of
one-half mile to Juniata shops. Previous to the building of these shops, the car
work, both new and repair, was done in the shops located near Twelfth street,
but since then all such work has been done here at these car shops.

92

The car shops
occupy 91 6/10 acres, including yards, and consist of the following buildings:
No. 1 planing mill, in size 72x355 feet, filled with all kinds of planers,
mortising and boring machines, and other wood-working machinery, driven by a 250
horse-power Corless engine, which is located in an adjoining building, 25x100
feet, and to which all shavings are carried through large iron pipes by force of
suction of large blowers. The various pieces of wood used in the construction of
cars are here made ready to fit into their proper places without
change.

No. 2 planing mill,
44x77 feet, with carpenter shop attached, 40x115, and engine room 16x38, and
boiler room 25x39. This planing-mill is engaged for the most part in getting out
work for the company's buildings, depots, telegraph towers, etc., but much other
work is done. There are machines for wood carving, and for turning all kinds of
handles for tools.

A blacksmith shop
80 feet wide and 493 feet long, in which are fashioned all the various shapes of
iron for use in carbuilding. Here are steam-hammers of 1,200 to 5,000 pounds
stroke, used in forging heavy irons. A bolt machine weighing 60,000 pounds,
capable of making 1,000 two-inch draft pins in a day; another of 40,000 pounds
weight, which makes 3,000 coupling pins in a day. Immense iron shears, capable
of cutting a bar of cold iron 3 inches thick and 6 inches wide in a second's
time, or punch a hole three inches in diameter through a plate of cold iron two
and one-half inches thick with the same facility.

A bolt and nut
shop, 30x 135 feet.

A truck shop,
75x85 feet, where car trucks are put together ready to set the car body
on.

A machine shop
70x130 feet. Here are two hydraulic presses for forcing wheels on the axles and
taking them off when unfit for further service. These presses can exert a power
equal to the weight of one hundred tons, and wheels must go on the axle with a
pressure of not less than twenty-five tons in order to be secure.

An upholstering
shop, 70x200 feet, divided into several rooms.

A cabinet shop
70x167 feet, and another room 70x200 feet, formerly the passenger car paint shop
but now used by the cabinetmakers; also a room on the second floor of this
latter building 50x70 feet; also another room 12x25, used for steaming and
bending wood into various shapes.

A passenger shop
(132x211 feet), and connected with this is a storage building for iron work
20x100 feet, and a shed for dry and worked lumber, 70x75 feet.

93

This department is
capable of building twenty-five passenger coaches per month, but as a great deal of repair work is
done they seldom make so many new cars in a month. The magnificently luxurious
parlor cars of the company are all made here.

A paint shop,
135x420 feet, wherein all the passenger, parlor, mail, express and baggage cars
are painted, ornamented and varnished. It will hold forty of the largest
passenger cars, with room for men to work on all at the same time.

Another paint shop,
100x400 feet, in which freight cars are painted. It is not large enough,
however, to hold all the freight cars usually in the process of building, and
many are painted while standing on the tracks outside. Another paint shop, 53x54
feet, is used by the house painters who paint depots, telegraph towers and other
company buildings.

An air-brake shop,
55x250 feet, with three tracks running the entire length of the building.
Annexed to this building is a storage building, 25x60 feet, and an office for
the foreman, 15x18 feet. Also a large covered platform, 20x90 feet, for storage
purposes.

A freight car shop
which is circular, 433 feet in diameter, with a turntable 100 feet in diameter
in the open space, or court, in the centre. Within the covered space of this
shop seventy-five freight cars can be built at once, and while numbers of others
receive repairs on the tracks within the circle.

A tin shop, 70x175
feet.

A buffing room,
37x100 feet, occupying the second floor of a brick building near the tin
shop.

A store house, one
floor of which is 36x 124 feet, and another floor 36x87 feet, and an additional
building, 30x50 feet, for storing nails.

An oil house, 16x26
feet, containing oils and cotton waste, used in the axle boxes of the
cars.

A fire engine
house, 30x50 feet, in which is kept a steam fire engine and hose carriage as a
protection against fires.

A lumber yard
covering twenty-five acres of ground, included in the 61 above, and in which are
stored several million feet of the best lumber. The lumber being constantly
received, dried and loaded for the shop, requires the assistance of seventy-five
men.

Thirty watchmen are
employed in these shops

The general foreman
and the shop clerk's offices occupy a large brick building adjoining the
storehouse, and the force, including officers and clerks, numbers twenty-three
persons.

John P. Levan is
the General Foreman of these shops.

94

THE JUNIATA LOCOMOTIVE SHOPS.

This latest
addition to the works of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company at Altoona were begun
in September, 1888, and finished in 1889-90. The first engine was turned out
July 29th, 1891. The buildings occupy a plot of ground 33 6/10 acres, lying just
east of the Car Shops' lumber yard, and between it and the Borough of Juniata,
and comprise the following:

These shops furnish
employment now to almost 800 men, and have a capacity for building 150 new
locomotive engines per year. T. R. Brown is Master Mechanic of Juniata
shops.

In addition to
these shop buildings there are two large office buildings standing on Twelfth
street, one at the corner of Eleventh avenue, a three-story brick, about 50x120
feet, and one on the corner of Twelfth avenue, about 80x100 feet, three stories
high. The former is used as the offices of General Superintendent of the road,
the Superintendent of Altoona Division, Superintendent of Motive Power,
Principal Assistant Engineer, Maintenance of Way Department and Telegraph
Department. The latter contains the offices of General Superintendent of Motive
Power, Motive Power Clerk and Mechanical Engineer. Other departments of the
road, viz Ticket Receivers and Relief Doctors have offices in the second story
of the Passenger Station.

The Railroad
Company also own the Logan House building and grounds, and a large three-story
brick double dwelling on Eleventh avenue, just west of the Superintendent's
office, in which reside the General Superintendent of the Road and the General
Superintendent of Motive Power ; also several other dwellings on Twelfth and
Eighth avenues, occupied by others of high rank.

95

Officers Pennsylvania Railroad Co., 1896

George B. Roberts,
President.S. M. Prevost, General Manager. J. R. Wood, General Passenger Agent. William H. Joyce, General Freight Agent. A. W. Sumner, Purchasing Agent. James A. Logan, General
Solicitor.The foregoing have their office in the City of
Philadelphia, in the magnificent building, erected for Passenger Station and
General Offices, on the corner of Broad and Market streets.

The Altoona Iron
Company is the next in importance after the railroad shops. Their rolling mill
was erected in 1872-3 and has been in almost continuous operation since April,
1873. Merchant bar iron of all kinds is manufactured here and the annual product
reaches into the hundred thousands; 150 men are employed. H, K. McCauley is
Secretary and Treasurer and Robert Smiley Manager of the mill.

A fine silk mill
was erected in 1888-9 and has been in continuous operation ever since. A large
annex was built a few years later and a still more important addition is now
projected. About 300 employes find work here and the amount of wages paid out
annually is nearly $40,000. No cloth is woven, but the yarn is prepared for
weaving in the looms owned by the company in the East. Schwarzenbaugh, Huber
& Co., of New York City, are owners of the new part and lessees of the
original plant.

The ice plant of the Pennsylvania Ice Company,
limited, located at Fifth avenue and Thirty-first street, is a large concern and
supplies the greater part of the ice consumed in the city. They have a capacity
for manufacturing 50,000 pounds of artificial ice per day and in addition have
immense ice houses at Point View, between Hollidaysburg and Williamsburg, where
great quantities of natural ice are cut and stored each winter. F. H. Seely is
one of the heaviest stockholders and resident manager of the
company.

Of the twelve
planing mills in the city, those of William Stoke, M. H. Mackey & Sons, Orr,
Blake & Co., Frank Brandt, A. Bucher and the Parker Bros. are the
largest.

97

The four breweries
of the city have an extensive trade, that of the Altoona Brewing Company on
Thirteenth street being the oldest and largest. Wilhelm, Schimminger and Ramsey
operate it now.

The gas works of
the Altoona Gas Company are the largest between Philadelphia and Pittsburg. The
company was chartered in 1857 and for many years their plant was at the corner
of Eleventh avenue and Ninth street, but the present plant at Seventh avenue,
and First street was put into operation in February, 1892, shortly after which
the old works were demolished and the ground is now occupied by track and a
freight shed of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. John Lloyd is President of
the Gas Company and George H. Harper Superintendent.

The Edison Electric
Illuminating Company was organized in 1887, by John Loudon, A. J. Anderson and
others and established a plant on Tenth avenue between Tenth and Eleventh
streets, which was occupied until April, 1896, when the present large and
thoroughly equipped plant at Union avenue and Nineteenth street was completed
and put in operation. W. R. Dunham is President, having been elected early in
the present year, and A. J. Anderson Secretary and Business Manager, E. B.
Greene, Superintendent.

The city water
system of Altoona is one of great magnitude, the plant having now cost over
$1,000,000. The gathering and storage reservoirs at Kittanning Point, on the
Pennsylvania Railroad at the Horse Shoe bend about six miles west of the city,
are works of art as well as monuments of engineering skill and well repay a
visit and inspection. They have a combined capacity of 430,000,000 gallons and
over 45 miles of iron pipe, from 2 to 16 inches in diameter, convey the water by
force of gravity to the city and distribute it to all residents.

The newspapers of
Altoona city comprise four dailies and five weeklies, including the weekly
edition of two of the dailies. Two of the dailies, the Tribune and the Times, appear
in the morning and tell of the various happenings of the world during the
preceding day and up until midnight, while two others, the Mirror and Gazette, coming
from the press about 5 o'clock in the evening tell of the happenings, local and
general, during the early part of the day.

98

A number of monthly
publications are also issued in the interests of various lodges and societies,
but none of general circulation. These will be referred to again in the article
on the press of the county.

Altoona has a well
organized paid Fire Department, which superseded the volunteer firemen May 1,
1895. It consists of a Chief Engineer and 35 men. Three steam fire engines in
service and two for emergencies; five hose carriages in use and two extra ones,
one hook and ladder truck, 7,000 feet of hose (1 1/4 miles) and 14 horses for
hauling the engines, truck and hose carts.

There is in the
city a library, the " Mechanics," which while not being free is largely
patronized by the best class of citizens. It is fostered and materially assisted
by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. G. W. Stattan is President Rev. Allan
Sheldon Woodle Vice-President, W. C. Leet, Secretary, Miss L. L. Snyder,
Librarian and Dr. C. B. Dudley, Chairman of the book committee.

Altoona has a
public hospital. The building was first erected in 1885 at a cost of $40,000 and
was opened for the reception of patients January 1, 1886. The building has since
been enlarged and now, with the grounds, represent a value of about $60,000.
John P. Levan is President, L. B. Reifsneider, Secretary. The medical staff
consists of Drs. John Fry, Chief of Staff, F. N. Christy, W. S. Ross, J. N.
Blose and J. F. Arney, who serve without compensation. It is supported by voluntary contributions and State
appropriations.

99

Big Things of Altoona.

The people of Altoona are not given to boasting; they
are, in fact, too modest in putting forth the claims of their city to
prominence. If they had a city like Altoona in California, Colorado or Kansas it
would be advertised all over the world and heralded as a marvel of the age, but,
when an Altoona man goes away from home or speaks of the town he only admits
that it is a pretty good place, business is good, the city is growing rapidly,
etc. Some evidently desire rather to suppress than exagerate the facts, for fear
too many people will come here.

Among the very
large things of which they could boast, are:

The Pennsylvania
Railroad passing through and giving the best possible service in the matter of
transportation.

The freight yard of
the railroad here is nearly five miles long and capable of holding half the cars
in the United States when the tracks are all laid.

The largest
railroad shops in America, building the finest cars and locomotive engines made
and employing over 7,000 men.

A growth in the
past forty-five years, unprecedented in the history of this country, from a few
scattered families to almost 50,000 people.

A future whose
outlook is most promising.

A surrounding
country unsurpassed in the world for beauty of location and picturesque
scenery.

A climate more
favorable to health and longevity than the boasted climate of
California.

Water and air as
pure as any nature has provided for man in any place.

Of manufacturing
establishments the largest, after the railroad shops, are a rolling mill,
employing 150 men, a silk mill with 250 employes, twelve planing mills,
furnishing employment to 300 to 500 men, an electric passenger railway having 25
miles of track, employing 175 men and furnishing rapid and cheap transportation
in the city and suburbs and to the county-seat and Bellwood.

100

Hollidaysburg.

"Whoever is alive a hundred years after this will see
a considerable sized town here, and this will be near about the middle of
it.

Thus Adam Holliday
is said to have spoken to his brother William, as he drove a stake into the
ground on the hill above the Juniata river, in 1768, where Hollidaysburg now
stands.

He was right; in
1868 the borough of Hollidaysburg occupied the land which he chose for a farm in
that early day and nearly 4000 people claimed it as their home. It did not
require one hundred years to work the change; in 50 years a small village had
sprung up and Adam Holliday's children were enjoying the advantages of a
civilized community and the results of their father's labor - Adam was dead. In
75 years from the date of this remark Hollidaysburg was the largest and most
important town between Harrisburg and Pittsburg, having both a railroad and a
canal. At that time only a few cities in the United States could boast of a
railroad. The Allegheny Portage being one of the very early ones of this
country. One hundred years after the settlement of the place Hollidaysburg was a
flourishing borough containing, with its suburbs, and Gaysport 4,000
inhabitants. Having two large iron furnaces, two rolling mills and large machine
shops and foundrys, and being the county seat of one of the most important
counties of the state. Thus was the prophecy of Adam Holliday
fulfilled.

The Holliday
brothers, when they started from their early home in the Conococheague Valley,
did not intend to locate here, and clearing the ground for the seat of justice
of a great county was farthest from their thoughts. They had intended to go to
the Allegheny Valley near Kittanning, but could not get through Blair County,
the beauty of the situation appealed to them too strongly to be resisted and
they resolved to settle here.

Thousands of other
people since that time have experienced the same difficulty in passing through
Blair County, if they stopped long enough to take in all the advantages it
offered, they were sure to remain and thus it is that now more than 80,000
people have their homes here and the number is being rapidly augmented. What
another half century may bring to the Empire of Blair man knoweth not, but in
the innermost thoughts of her friends are visions of future wealth, prosperity
and greatness, so vast that they hesitate to give expression to imaginations,
lest they be laughed at as visionary and impossible.

101

Adam Holliday
purchased 1,000 acres of land on the eastern side of the river including all of
the site of Hollidaysburg and William obtained a like amount on the western side
where Gaysport now stands. They bought from the Proprietaries - descendants of
William Penn, and the price paid was five pounds sterling per hundred acres,
equal to $220.20 for each thousand acre tracts. Each built a log house on his
tract, as both were men of families and cleared and resided on their land for
many years. William is supposed to have kept his until his death but Adam was
disposessed of his on account of some imperfection in his title. He was paid for
it however, by the government some time after the Revolution, receiving $17,000
or $18,000 which made him a very rich man for this region and that
time.

As to the location
of the first houses erected, authorities differ and the exact truth cannot now
be determined. Mr. U. J. Jones, writing a "History of the Juniata Valley" in
1855 says Adam Holliday's house stood about where the American House now stands,
while H. H. Snyder, esq., writing some 25 years later locates it on the
southwest corner of Allegheny and Montgomery streets. Adam Holliday died at or
near Hollidaysburg in 1801 leaving but two children, a son John and a daughter
Jane. The latter married William Reynolds, of Bedford county, proprietor of
Bedford Springs Hotel. John Holliday lived the greater part of his life here and
here he died in 1843. He had a family of ten children, vis: Adam, born Nov. 9,
1804, who went to Oil City, Pa. Mary born April 25, 1806, married Andrew Bratton
and moved to Lewistown, Pa. Sarah, born Dec. 11, 1807, married Soloman Filler
and moved to Bedford, Pa. Lazarus L., born Nov. 5, 1809, died in Missouri, July
17, 1846. John, Jr., born Dec. 8, 1811 was a soldier in the Mexican war and died
on ship board while enroute from Vera Cruz to Galveston Aug. 2, 1842. Alexander
L. born May 7, 1814, resided in Hollidaysburg all his life, Jane born Aug. 27,
1816 married J. L. Slentz and moved to Pittsburg, where she died in 1869.
Caroline, born July 12, 1818, married D. McLeary and resided at Hollidaysburg
all her life time. William R., Sept. 16, 1820, moved to Massachusetts. Fleming,
the youngest, born May 25, 1823, and moved to the west. The names of children
and grandchildren of William Holliday and what became of them we have been
unable to learn, in the short time at our disposal.

The exact date at
which Hollidaysburg was laid out, is in some doubt, but it was prior to the
beginning of the present century,

102

probably about 1790; though H. H. Snyder in his
historical research came to the conclusion that it was at least ten years
earlier because a Janet Holliday owned a lot, and a Janet Holliday was killed by
the Indians in 1781. It is probable, however, that it was Jane Holliday,
daughter of Adam, and not Janet daughter of William, who met so early and sad a
death. Whatever may have been the date, the original plot contained but 90 lots
60x180 feet in size and the streets were Allegheny, Walnut and Montgomery a
diamond was formed by taking 30 feet off the end of each of the four lots
cornering there. As Allegheny street was 60 feet wide and Montgomery street 50
feet, it follows that the diamond was 120x170 feet, and so it has remained to
the present time. The original plot cannot now be found and the only copy known
is not dated.

The little town did
not grow rapidly at first and in 1814 there were but three houses, a small store
and a blacksmith shop. In 1830 it was not nearly so large or important a village
as Frankstown, but when the canal was finished and the great basin and terminus
located at Hollidaysburg the place immediately began to grow and in 1835 it was
a very important town, far exceeding Frankstown. The Hollidaysburg Sentinel and Huntingdon, Cambria and Bedford
County Democrat, the first issue of which was published Oct. 6, 1835, in a
descriptive article said that the population was 1,200 and that no town in the
interior of the state enjoyed more advantages than Hollidaysburg. This census
included Gaysport. In 1836, eight daily transportation lines operated on the
canal and railroad and the tolls collected on the canal, railroad, and for
motive power that year amounted to $154,282.74. The borough was chartered in
August that year and the council held their first meeting at John Dougherty's
house Sept. 20, 1836.

Higher vilization
soon became apparent for the young borough went in debt in June 1837 for public
improvements. One of the bonds, or evidences of debt, reads as
follows:

"HOLLIDAYSBURG BOROUGH LOAN.

'This
is to certify that there is due to bearer from the Burgess, Town Council, and
citizens of the Borough of Hollidaysburg ONE DOLLAR bearing an interest,
redeemable in the payment of taxes, by virtue of an ordinance passed by the Town
Council June 19, 1837."''JAMES COFFEE, BURGESS."

$5,342.69 of these
"borough notes" were outstanding on the 6th of April 1844, at which time the
total indebtedness of the borough was $ 16,311.30.

103

The ''Huntingdon,
Cambria and Indiana County Pike" was completed from Huntingdon through Hollidaysburg to
Blairsville in 1819 and the canal from Huntingdon to Hollidaysburg in
1832; the first boat coming from
Huntingdon Nov. 28. The Allegheny Portage railroad was completed late in 1833
and operated in 1834 making a line of transportation by boat and rail complete
from Philadelphia, through Hollidaysburg to Pittsburg, and
Hollidaysburg became one of the
most important towns between the two points, an
extremely prosperous business place. When the new county was formed and
Hollidaysburg made the seat of justice, in 1846, it added still more to her prestige and it seemed as if her
cup of prosperity was full to the brim. A few years later, 1851, the
Magnetic telegraph as it vas then
styled, was extended from Bedford to Hollidaysburg and during the following year
1852 the railroad from Altoona was completed.

Until the
construction of the canal, the business center of Hollidaysburg was at the
diamond but with the advent of the canal it all gravitated to the basin at the
foot of Montgomery street. A town hall and market house was erected about 1835,
midway between the diamond and canal basin and many stirring scenes have been
witnessed where now oppressive quietness reigns since the railroad superseded the canal and the latter was
abandoned. The old market house was abandoned excepting a part which was fitted
up for the borough fire company, but later it was entirely disused, and after
standing tenantless for several years was finally torn down, at a period still
quite recent.

The large
warehouses and store buildings which were erected near the basin have been changed to dwellings and in some
cases removed since the railroad superseded the canal, and the business part of
the town has gone back to its old location around the diamond and along
Allegheny street. Many of these changes occurred before the advent of any considerable manufactures. The
furnaces, and rolling mills are of more recent origin than the railroad and even
this industry seems to have reached its highest point some years ago.

The canal began to
fall into disuse soon after the completion of the Pennsylvania railroad and in a
few years more was entirely
abandoned as a channel of commerce; the water stood stagnant within its banks a
few years longer when it was drained off and the embankments broken down, the
stone in the locks taken away for other uses and now the line is only faintly
traceable through the county. The Allegheny Portage railroad began at the
western

104

end of the basin
and continued thence across the Juniata and through Gaysport to Duncansville and
"Foot of Ten" where it began its steep ascent of the mountain to another plane,
along this plane to another incline and so on to the mountain top, and down on
the other side to Johnstown, 39 miles from Hollidaysburg, the beginning of the
western division of the canal.

Iron manufacturers
had been operating in the upper Juniata Valley for 50 years before any furnaces
were erected in Hollidaysburg, but to compensate, in some degree, for this,
those built at Hollidaysburg, in 1855, were much larger and more complete than
any others and used coke for fuel instead of charcoal as the earlier and smaller
ones in the county had done. The first of these furnaces called the
Hollidaysburg furnace but later known as No. 1, was built by Watson, White &
Co., at a cost of about $6o,ooo. It stood on the Gaysport side of the river. The
principal contributors to the enterprise were Col. William Jack, McLanahan,
Watson & Co., Robert and B. M. Johnston, David Watson, William Jackson, A:
M. White and Samuel S. Blair Esq. It was first put in blast Nov. 18, 1856, and
had a capacityof 120 tons per week.

Chimney Rocks
Furnace, later known as No. 2, was built in 1855-6 by Gardner, Osterloh &
Co.. Although bugan later than the other it was completed first, but was
of less capacity. A few years later, owing to financial difficulties,
these two furnaces came under one control. The Blair Iron & Coal Company
composed of Watson, Dennison & Co. and the Cambria Iron Co., of Johnstown.
They were thus operated for many years. Quite recently however, the old No. 2
furnace was abandoned and torn down so that now there is but one furnace
at Hollidaysburg.

The Hollidaysburg
Iron and Nail Company is the name of the corporation now owning and operating
one of the rolling mills at Hollidaysburg. The mill is located near the No. 2
furnace and was built in 1869 by B. M. Johnston. In 1866 some new members were
taken in and the company chartered under the above name. The works have been
operated almost continuously for thirty-six years.

The other rolling mill was built later and is now
operated by the Eleanor Iron Company, R. C. McNeal Secretary and Treasurer.
These are both quite extensive works, the Iron and Nail Company employing 150
men. Nails were made here at one time, but the nail department has not been in
operation for some years.

105

McLanahan, Smith & Co. have an extensive foundry
and machine shop in Gaysport, where they manufacture large quantities of
machinery which is shipped to various parts of the country, the Southern States
especially. These works were first started in 1857 as the Bellrough foundry and
have been enlarged several times since by successive owners.

If some adventurous
person had followed the Juniata River to near its headwaters any time between
the years 1770 and 1785 he might have seen, shortly after passing through the
gap in the Bald Eagle mountains, a level, triangular piece of ground, surrounded
on three sides by the mountain, and high hills and from the north a stream of about the same size as the Juniata
joining it here; also a smaller
stream flowing from a large spring and emptying into the Juniata, and, in a
small clearing near this spring, a hut or rude dwelling inhabited by a half
civilized Indian. This flat is where Tyrone now stands and the Indian was
Captain or Chief Logan an Indian differing little from others of the Cayugas, to
which tribe he belonged, except that he had laid aside the implements of warfare
and lived by hunting and fishing and by cultivating some of the land surrounding
his cabin. He was not proud, "but had he known the post mortem honors that the
future had in store for him, that a rich and pleasant valley, a township, a
borough, an immense hotel and others of less size, beside numerous lodges,
societies, etc., and a great electric railway company would be named after him,
he might have been more dignified than he was. Fortunately he never dreamed of
these honors and when, in 1785, a white man secured the legal title to the land
that he had held only by possessory right, and told him to move off, he did so
without much objection and journeyed north to near the present site of
Clearfield, where he ended his days in peace.

The name of the
white man who thus cruelly dispossessed the peaceful old Indian has not been
preserved, but he did not hold the lands long. About the beginning of the
present century they formed part of a large mineral tract owned by John
Glonninger & Co., who in 1806 erected forges at the place now known as
Tyrone Forges. A little village grew up around the Forges and a farmer or two
and a man with a saw-mill, Elisha Davis, occupied the Indian's former land as
tenants of, or purchasers from, Glonninger's. The Forges soon after became the
property of Wm. M. Lyon & Co. Jacob Burley was one of the very early
settlers here and built a log house in 1820 or perhaps earlier where the Central
Hotel now stands.

No town was
projected until the Central Pennsylvania Railroad as the Pennsylvania Railroad
was then called, was in process of construction, then Tyrone sprung into being.

107

The first plot was
surveyed in the spring of 1851 by direction of Wm. M. Lyon & Co. It
consisted of 75 lots only, lying north of Juniata street and west of Main.
During that season six or eight small buildings were erected for stores and
residences. A frame house built by Jacob Burley in 1850 where the Study block
now stands was used as a store and dwelling that year and was the first store in
the new town.

No name was given
the place by its proprietors at first but it was called Eaglesville by some and
Shorbsville by others for the first year or two, but when it became apparent
that it would grow into a village it was christened Tyrone City. The latter part
of the name to distinguish it from Tyrone Forges, less than a mile distant.
Tyrone City grew quite rapidly and in a few years contained enough people to
entitle it to a postoffice, and F. M. Bell was appointed first postmaster, which
office he held until 1857, keeping the office in his store. There has been no
halt in the growth of Tyrone, although it has not increased as rapidly as
Altoona. In 1870 the population was 1,800, and now, with its suburbs, it is
fully 8,000. By an Act of Assembly, approved May 1874, it was divided into four
wards, which is the present number.

The completion of
the Pennsylvania Railroad through Tyrone from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, opened
up a new outlet to market for the products of Center county, and the people were
not slow to take advantage of it. A plank road was completed from Bellefonte to
Tyrone in 1853 and in 1856 the project of a branch railroad to connect with the
Pennsylvania Railroad was agitated, and the Tyrone and Lock Haven Railroad
Company was organized. This company did not have sufficient capital to build the
line and it fell through, but in 1861 the Bald Eagle Valley Railroad Company was
formed, and with some assistance from the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, the
railroad to Lock Haven. Connecting also with Bellefonte by a branch from
Milesburg.

A road to
Clearfield, opening up the rich lumber and coal fields of that county, was
projected in 1856. The Tyrone and Clearfield Company, organized to build it
found the undertaking too great and were also obliged to obtain assistance from
the Pennsylvania. This road was also built in 1862, and the two branches brought
an immense amount of business to Tyrone. The Tyrone Division of the Pennsylvania
Railroad, to manage these two branches, was established at this time, and the
car repair shops at Tyrone were built in 1868. The Tyrone and Lewisburg branch,
which also belongs to this division, was constructed in 1881-2.

108

The Tyrone Gas and
Water Co. was authorized by Act of Assembly March 10, 1865, but no organization
was completed until 1869, at which time a company was formed with a capital of
$20,000 and water works immediately constructed and pipes laid in the principal
streets. The Gas Works however, were not built until 1873. Gas was expensive in
those days, the rate to consumers being $3.50 per thousand cubic feet. A
Volunteer Fire department was organized in 1868 and Wm.. Stoke, now of Altoona,
was the first Fire Marshall of Tyrone. The first steam fire engine and 200 feet
of hose was purchased in 1873 and given in charge of the Neptune Fire Co., which
had been organized as a Hose Co. in 1871.

The Bald Eagle
tannery, one of Tyrone's important industries was erected and put in operation
in 1870 by Daniel P. Ray and after his death in 1881 operated by his sons John
K. and Daniel P. Ray. The tannery is located close to the passenger
station.

The Tyrone Paper
Mills, the largest industry in Tyrone and one of the largest of its kind in the
state, was built by Morrison, Bare & Cass in 1880 and put in operation in
October of that year, and has been running successfully ever since. It is
situated on Bald Eagle Creek at the upper end of Pennsylvania avenue. Several
hundred men are employed and immense quantities of wood are used in the
manufacture. They make manilla writing, book and news paper, wood being the
principal ingredient, being chopped into small chips and reduced to pulp by
chemical processes.

The first Building
and Loan Association in Tyrone was organized March, 1870, and called the Tyrone
Building and Loan Association. Another, the Bald Eagle, was organized May, 1872.
The first hotel erected for the purpose in Tyrone was the Central, built in
1852-3 by John Burley, it was afterward enlarged and is now carried on by C. M.
Waple. The Ward House, by the passenger station was built in 1859 to 1862 by
Mrs. Mary Ward. It is now conducted on by J. T. Rowley.

The first bank in
Tyrone was that of Lloyd, Caldwell & Co., established in 1866 and went down
with the other Lloyd banks in the financial crash of 1873.

The Tyrone Bank was
established April 1, 1871, and the Blair County Banking Co., organized Dec. 15,
1874.

109

TYRONE NEWSPAPERS.

Had there been some
deadly miasma in the air as fatal to human life as the conditions seemed to be
to the early newspaper ventures, Tyrone would be an uninhabited spot to-day, but
fortunately there was not.

The first newspaper
started in Tyrone was a weekly in 1856 by D. A. McGeehan and called the Iron Age politics, Democratic. It continued for a year
or a little more when it failed and the proprietor was sold out.

The American Era was commenced a little later the same year,
owned by a stock company and edited by W. S. H. Keys, politics, Republican. The
rival papers maintained a bitter warfare with each other and both failed about
the same time, the press and type of the Era being
purchased by Robert Stodard. The town was without a paper for a while and then
the Tyrone Herald was started with the same outfit
formerly used by the Era.

It failed after a
year's struggle against adverse circumstances and was revived later under the
name of the Star, by James Bell, but the Star was not a fixed one and failed after a short
period. Again a newspaper was started under the name of the Tyrone Herald, H. R. Holtzinger, editor. It survived six
months. Holtzinger being a Brethren minister, soon after started a
denominational paper called the Christian Family
Companion, which succeeded quite well, but in a few years was moved to
Somerset county. Soon afterward the Western Hemisphere
was started by J. W. Scott and Cyrus Jeffries, but eighteen months was as
long as their finances would support it and it too was carried to the newspaper
cemetery of Tyrone and laid to rest sadly by the side of its many equally
unfortunate predecessors.

The Tyrone Herald, for the third time, made its appearance on the
newspaper horizon in August, 1867, but it could scarcely claim relationship to
or descent from either of the other two Heralds which
preceded it. Holtzinger and J. L. Holmes were proprietors of the Herald this time and it proved a success. In 1868 C. S.
W. Jones became part owner which was a guarantee of
its stability and success, and it still survives, occupying a building of its
own. In July, 1880, the office was burned out but the paper did not lose an
issue on that account. It is now published daily and weekly, the daily having
been begun in 1887, C. S. W. Jones still editor and proprietor.

The Tyrone Bulletin., by Matthew H. Jolly, was issued from April,
1867, for six months, when it collapsed.

110

The Tyrone Blade was established by J. L. Holmes after his
retirement from the Herald. He published it from June
1, 1870, to November 22, 1872, when he sold it to George Stroup who changed the
name to the Tyrone Democrat, which was published
until July 8, 1880, when the great fire destroyed the office and the paper was
never revived.

The Tyrone Times was first begun as a semi-weekly paper June 1,
1880, by John N. Holmes, son of J. L. Holmes and A. M. Wooden, the office being
in a building of Mr. Wooden's on lower Main street and the outfit a complete new
one. August 10th, the same year, it was changed to a weekly. It passed through
several hands, being owned and edited by C. G. Nissel for a long time, but is
now published by Harry A. Thompson, who became its owner February 1,
1896.

Bellwood.

This beautiful
little town, formerly called Bells' Mills, is noted for its picturesque mountain
scenery. It is situated on the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad, midway
between Altoona and Tyrone. It is also the southern terminus of the Pennsylvania
Northwestern Railroad, formerly the Bells' Gap, which was constructed in 1872
and later extended to Punxsutawney in Jefferson County and passes through a rich
coal and lumber region. The town first began to build up around the saw and
grist mill of Edward Bell about the year 1828, but only attained a small size
until the building of the Bells' Gap Railroad. It was regularly laid out in
1877. The shops of this company are located here and furnish employment to a
large number of men. There is also a foundry and machine shop doing an extensive
business. The place contains three hotels, several stores, a bank, four
churches, Methodist Episcopal, Baptist, Lutheran and Presbyterian. In 1884 the
Logan Valley Electric Passenger Railway extended their tracks to Bellwood and
that is now the eastern terminus of the line, although it is likely soon to be
continued to Tyrone. The population of Bellwood is now 1,500.

111

Williamsburg.

When the first
morning sun of the Nineteenth Century rose it saw more evidences of civilization
in Williamsburg and vicinity than any part of Blair county. The town plot had
been laid out in 1795 by Jacob Ake, who owned 600 acres of land including the
present village site and surroundings, and it is said he had a school kept here
about the year 1790 he furnishing the room and paying the teacher and the
settlers sending their children without charge. If this be true it was the
earliest free school in this region. The town plot contained 120 lots 5Ox175
feet in size. The original streets were Front and Second, each 60 feet wide,
Plum, 50 feet wide, High, 66 feet in width and Spring only 42, eight feet being
allowed for the flow of the spring, The early name of the town was Akestown,
after its founder. It is said that in 1814 there were forty families here and
that was equal to the population of Frankstown at the time and far in excess of
Hollidaysburg. A saw and grist mill run by the water from the big spring were
built and operated as early as 1791 or 92. A bucket factory was established in
1830 by Hawley & Woodcock. and soon after a woolen factory by David Bender.
An oil mill and tannery and several distilleries here, were among the very
earliest industries of the county. The canal passed through in 1832 and the
present Williamsburg branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad was constructed about
1870.

An iron furnace was
built in 1857, which was run for a number of years, but has now been removed and
the only evidence of its existence to-day is a large pile of furnace slag.
Williamsburg is beautifully situated on the Frankstown branch of the Juniata
river and under favorable conditions has the making of a large city, and such it
may ultimately become, but now its principal claim to distinction is as the
birthplace, or near it, of some of the most prominent people Blair county has
produced. One now occupies a seat in the Supreme Court of the State, another is
a member of Congress, another Mayor of the city of Harrisburg and another will
soon be elected to represent this county in the State Legislature. The
population is at present about 1,000. There are a number of stores, four
churches, a bank and several smaller manufacturing establishments. The wonderful
spring still turns the wheels of a good grist mill.

112

Martinsburg.

The country in the
vicinity of Martinburg was settled before the Revolution, but Martinsburg town
was not laid out until 1815. The first plot was by
Daniel Camerer and John Soyster built the first house. Abraham Stoner laid out a
plot adjoining Camerer's in 1820, and James McCray plotted an extension to the
borough in 1871.

The growth of the
town was slow; in 1860the population was 464and in 1880 567.
Now it is about 1,000..

The borough was incorporated in 1832 and in
1834a second Act of Assembly enlarged the bounds
considerably.

The surrounding
country is a rich agricultural district, and a very good trade is carried on
here with the farmers of the lower end of the county.

No iron works were
ever built at Martinsburg and no large industries of any kind established,
but a big building, known as the Juniata Institute stands on the outer edge of
the town and may be considered the most prominent feature. (See schools).
Besides a number of stores, a hotel, and several churches there is a bank, the
Martinsburg Deposit Bank which was established in 1870.

A small newspaper, the Cove Echo,
was published here in 1874-5 by Henry and John Brumbaugh. Unlike other
towns of the county Martinsburg is
not surrounded by mountain scenery, but occupies a comparatively level
plain.

Roaring Spring.

This beautiful and
flourishing borough contains about 1000 inhabitants, and is one of the newest
towns of the county, although it is the site of the first grist mill in all the
region. Jacob Neff, built a mill here, below the Springs, about the year 1765,
but it was not until quite recently that a town grew up in the vicinity. The
Spring is one of the natural curiosities of Pennsylvania, bursting from the foot
of a slight elevation, it sends forth a stream of clear, pure and cold water, of
sufficient volume to turn an over-shot water wheel and run a fair sized grist
mill; to which use it was put for many years, but now the large flouring mills
of D. M. Bare & Co., are driven by steam power, although the water for the
boilers comes from the spring.

113

As before stated, a
grist mill was erected here at a very early day, the exact date now unknown, by
Jacob Neff; and it was burned by the Indians and rebuilt by him prior to the
Revolution. Later, but still long, long, ago, it was owned by John Ullery, who
was its next proprietor. It passed through various hands and finally came into
the possession of D. M. Bare who, in 1864, purchased the old mill, and in 1869
erected the present large one. Later, he associated others with him and the firm
was styled D. M. Bare & Co. "Bare's Best," flour became a household word
throughout a wide territory. Mr. Bare, in partnership with Eby, Morrison &
Co., in 1866, built a paper mill just below the grist mill and these two,
together with a blank-book factory erected in 1886, are the great industries of
the town; furnishitig employment to a large number of persons. The first
regularly laid out town lots were those plotted for D. M. Bare. in 1865 - fifty
in number. Hon. George H. Spang also laid out a plot adjoining these in 1874 and
in 1887 the borough was incorporated, and in the spring of 1888 the first
borough officers were elected.

A fire destoyed the
paper mill in 1866 and another in 1887 the book factory, but both were
immediately rebuilt. A large hotel was erected in 1888, near the depot. The
railroad was extended from Hollidaysburg to Roaring Spring, Martinsburg and
Henrietta, in 1871. It should be needless to add that the town was named from
the spring, but it will surprise strangers to learn that no one now living, ever
heard this spring roar. It is said, however, that in the early days of the
country it did send forth a roaring sound that, in the stillness of the forest,
could be heard for half a mile, and that changes made at its mouth obliterated
this feature but not the name.

Tipton, Fostoria and Grazierville.

These are small,
very small villages, on the P. R. R. between Bellwood and Tyrone. The two former
were started about the same time as Altoona and Tyrone but did not thrive as
their projectors had hoped and both now present a somewhat forlorn and deserted
appearance. Yet the time is not far distant when they may put on new life and
activity. The entire valley from Bellwood to Tyrone is very attraciive and when
the Logan Valley Electric railway is completed to Tyrone, it will all be built
up with residences and become one continuous town. Grazierville was the location
of Cold Spring forge long before the railroad was built and it is but a small
hamlet now, the forge having long since ceased to burn and its very site almost
obliterated. Davidsburg is a small but ancient village on the public road
between Bellwood and Fostoria, off from the railroad. It was laid out in 1827,
by John Henshey, and named in honor of his son David. Chief Logan, the Indian,
had his wigwam beside the spring here before he

114

located at the
present site of Tyrone. Prior the construction of the P. R. R. this place was on
the public road leading from Bellefonte to the Portage railroad at Duncansville
and was quite a flourishing village, with three stores, two hotels, a tannery,
two blacksmith shops, etc. Dr. Crawford Irwin, now of Hollidaysburg, located
here in his younger days.

The Future of Blair County.

No man can see an
inch beyond the present, but a careful observation of the present, together with
a thoughtful study of the past, often furnishes a basis for almost positive
predictions for the future.

Such observation
and study has occupied much of the writer's time and the result has been such as
to fully satisfy him that Blair county has before her a future of great
brilliancy. The situation is worthy of special consideration. The superficial
area of the county is large, 594 miles, half as much as the State of Rhode
Island and more than one-fourth the size of Delaware and while surrounded on all
sides by mountains, a large proportion of the soil is tillable and most of it
reasonably fertile. Well cultivated it would support a large population, though
of course, not nearly as large as many other parts of the State. Her ability to
maintain a population of 100,000 is easily demonstrable, and this is one factor
in the case.

That she already
has so many inhabitants, and is so far ahead of the surrounding counties in
population and in the possession of a large city, Altoona, is another important
factor. It gives her prestige, which is a drawing power, proven by the hundreds
of people from the immediately adjacent counties now and daily arriving. It is
not reasonable to suppose that any other city within a radius of 100 miles will
ever surpass or even equal Altoona in size. She is the metropolis of Central
Pennsylvania and will remain so without a rival. There are too many shrewd and
intelligent men here, with property interests at stake, for her steady growth to
be checked for an instant.

For Altoona to
cease growing means bankruptcy for them and they will keep enterprise on the
move as a matter of self-preservation. With such men, so interested, and backed
by a rich and powerful railroad, like the Pennsylvania, can anyone think for an
instant that Altoona will cease growing before her population has reached
100,000, or that it will be allowed to stop even there ?

The Pennsylvania
Railroad is solidly built, has possession of the field and from the nature of
the country it would be almost impossible for a parallel and competing line to
be profitably constructed anywhere near Blair county. A north and south road is
feasible, would prove a benefit to the Pennsylvania Railroad and will undobtedly
be built; and Altoona, as the largest city of this region, accessible by rail in
every direction, will be the center of

115

trade and, of
course, prosper greatly. Altoona being a great city and also a part of Blair
county, it follows, necessarily, that Blair county will be great and every part
of the county be benefitted by proximity to it.

Furthermore, Blair
county has mineral wealth. Some of it has been partially developed, but there is
much reason to believe that the vast body of her mineral deposits are yet
untouched. Some day a man with money to waste will erect a derrick in some of
the valleys, perhaps Logan, below Bellwood, and after spending a few thousands
will find petroleum oil gushing out in such quantities as to repay him in a
week. Then others will do likewise while many will say, " I thought as much. Why
was it not done before ? "

Some time shafts
and slopes will be sunk in Blair county from which vast quantities of coal will
be taken, and fortunes will be made by that industry. Manufactures will flourish
here, too: There is no reason why they should not. Artisans enjoy life better
and can do more work in a healthy climate, where air and water is pure and the
surroundings beautiful, than where the contrary is true, therefore thousands of
mechanics will, in the early future, reside in Blair county and the products of
their labor will be sold all over the world. Will not
Blair then be great? Nearly everything that can be manufactured profitably in
any part of the United States may, under good management, be manufactured here
with profit; especially such articles as are in constant and general use by us.
A pound of raw cotton , worth 6 or 7 cents in the fields of South Carolina is
shipped to Massachusettes and made into print cloth; is sent to Blair county and
we pay 50 to 75 cents for it. A pound of wool in California, worth 20 to 25
cents, also goes east and after being made into cloth comes to Blair county and
we pay $1.50 to $2.00 for it. The difference represents the labor of eastern
mechanics and the profit of eastern manufacturers and wholesalers. These and a
hundred other things might be made in Blair county, and the workmen engaged at
it live here and help to swell our aggregate of population and wealth. Some day
this will be done.

Places of Interest which Visitors to Blair County should
See.

First, the immense
shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, in their
three departments of Machine shops, Car shops and Locomotive shops, where
everything pertaining to cars and engines is made; where parlor cars of the most
luxurious design and finish costing $12,000 to $20,000 are constructed and
locomotive engines weighing a hundred tons are built, capable of rushing

116

through the
country, on steel rails, at the rate of a mile a minute and hauling freight
trains of such enormous weight that 1,000 teams of horses could not move
them.

Second, the large
freight yard extending from the eastern limits of the city to Elizabeth furnace,
nearly five miles ; not yet completed but having miles upon mile of side tracks
on which may be seen thousands of cars.

The extensive paper
mills of Morrison & Cass, at Tyrone, where fine book paper is made from the
thousands of cords of wood piled up on all sides of the mill. A similar plant,
though not so large, at Roaring Springs.

The Logan House, at
Altoona, which Bill Nye, when he stopped here, said was as large as the State of
Rhode Island ; that he slept in the northeast corner of it, two miles from the
clerk's office.

The stupendous
reservoir at Kittanning Point, where over 400,000,000 gallons of water is stored
for the use of Altoona.

The '' Horse-shoe
Bend " of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Kittanning Point, and the grand mountain
scenery from there to Bennington, which has been admired by thousands of people
from all parts of the world.

Roaring Spring and
the big spring at Williamsburg, both of which flow strong enough to run a grist
mill.

Flowing spring near
Williamsburg on the Pennsylvania Railroad branch which ebs and flows at
irregular intervals.

Sinking run in
Sinking Run Valley, Tyrone township, which is quite a good sized creek and after
a flow of several miles is completely swallowed up and disappears in the
earth.

Arch Spring in the
same township near Water Street, which bursts from an arched formation in a hill
side and produces a large stream which flows into the Juniata river. This is
supposed to be the same Sinking run which disappears some miles to the
west.

The large lime
stone quaries and kilns at Frankstown, Duncansville, Canan Station and other
places.

The ruins of old
iron furnaces, at Allegheny Furnace near Altoona, others at Frankstown,
Williamsburg, Elizabeth Furnace, McKee's Gap and elsewhere.

The beautiful park
and lake at Lakemont on the Logan Valley Electric Railway, midway between
Altoona and Hollidaysburg.

Wopsononock
mountain and observatory, reached by the Altoona, Clearfield and Northern
railroad from Juniata.

The magnificent
landscapes to be seen from elevated points in and near Hollidaysburg, Altoona,
Bellwood and Tyrone, and the beautiful Logan Valley as it may be viewed from the
cars of the Pennsylvania Railroad in passing from Altoona to Tyrone. Also
hundreds of other beautiful and interesting things and localities that will be
pointed out by old residents of the county.

1846. LITTLE
BLAIR. 1896.

As from the rock that towers high, The eagle gazes toward the sky,Then
spreads his wings and soars away,To bathe his plumage in
the rayThat falls in freshness from the
sun; So Blair from lofty Huntingdon, Gazed upward toward Dominion's sky, And quick to see and strong to fly, Sprang upward in her liberty, And rose to glorious
destiny
. For fifty years her wings she's tried, For fifty years her strength and prideHave weakened not, but stronger grown, 'Till through the land her power's known, And Pennsylvania's counties
fair, Obeisance pay
to LITTLE BLAIR.

Her
rock-ribbed mountains, high and blue, Are not
more strong and not more true, Than is her love for
those who gave Their strong,
young life our Land to save, Who heard
great Lincoln's call for men And
died in field and prison-pen. Blair's
heroes sleep far, far from
home, Their only epitaph, "UNKNOWN!" But angels bright are sent of God To watch beside their beds of sod. Long as our mountains pierce the skies- Till God shall bid the dead
arise- .Ne'er
let the work our heroes wrought,By children's children
be forgot.

Brave "Boys in Blue," when strife was
o'er, When cannon ceased to
flame and roar; When God's sweet angel whispered
"Peace!" And caused
the noise of war to cease; With sunburnt face
and battle scars, Beneath the dear old Stripes and
Stars, Marched homeward to the hills of
Blair, While shouts of welcome filled
the air. These "Boys in Blue," so brave and
strong, Are with us now, but not for
long; For one by one they pass
within The tent that has no
"outward swing." The
debt we owe them never can Be
paid on earth by mortal man. May He who
died a world to save Smile on our heroes, true and
brave.

But Blair has other
heroes true As those who fought in
lines of blue For Freedom, and
inscribed their name High on the scroll of
deathless Fame. Who, in the time of testing,
stoodWhere duty called, and never would Their post forsake, but did their partin face of Death, like noble Sharp.

God's richest blessings on him rainWho saved the wildly rushing train;Who bravely answered Duty's call And gave the world a second Paul.

Where robed in ermine justice stands,Her balanced scales within her hands,Blair's sons now sit in court supremeImpartially to judge between The right and wrong of every cause- Maintaining justice and her laws.

In church at home and church abroadHer sons proclaim the truth of God,And heathen far beyond the seaPoint
to the Christ of Calvary. Her teachers, too,
well "skilled to rule"In city or in village school,Have learning's strong foundation laidIn mind of boy and mind of maid,Till
all her sons and daughters fairAre now the pride of
"Little Blair;" While some have climbed Parnassus'
hill,Whose name and fame the nations fill.

Her Press so strong, so true and free,To plead for Right and Liberty;All
shams expose, all truth defend;Has proved herself the
People's friend.As our own mountain air is free,So let our Press forever be!

The peerless Corporation, too,Known o'er the world, as strong and trueAs Johnstown Bridge, well known to fame,That stood so firm when torrents came;To all her men both kind and fair,Has brought large wealth to "Little Blair."In busy shops, on flying trains,With
brawny arms and giant brains,With courage true and
matchless zeal,Her sons promote the Nation's weal.

For fifty
years she's done so well, No mortal all her deeds may
tell;While mountains pierce the ambient air,0 live and flourish, glorious BLAIR!

IDA CLARKSON LEWIS .Altoona, a, Pa., April 13, 1896.

APPENDIX.

HOW THE SEMI=CENTENNIAL WAS CELEBRATED.

The Program as It Was Carried Out,
June 10, 11 and 12 1896.

The two old and
true sayings that "Man proposes but God disposes," and "There's many a slip
'twixt cup and the lip, did not receive much additional illustration
during the great Jubilee of BlairCounty in
commemoration of the completion of her first fifty years of independent existence, as the
pre-arranged program was carried out with but little change. Providence seemed
to smile on the efforts of the people of Blair to properly celebrate the
occasion. The weather all that could have been desired; frequent showers during
the week preceding and on the first two days of the week of festivities led to
some apprehension that it might be a failure, but on Wednesday morning the
clouds were dissipated and not another drop of rain fell until the last set
piece of the pyrotechnic display of Friday night had enacted its part and the
curtain dropped on the scene.

Wednesday
afternoon, June 10, 1896, at 2:30 o'clock the first formal meeting took place. It was the bar of Blair County
entertaining guests, distinguished jurists, and members of the county bar with
reminiscent speech at the Court House, and in the evening a banquet at the Logan
House, Altoona.

The afternoon
meeting was called to order at 2:30, and on motion of A. A. Stevens, Esq., Hon.
Martin Bell, President Judge of the county was chosen chairman. Rev. D. H.
Barron, D. D., pastor of the First Presbyterian church of Hollidaysburg, offered
a prayer, and a sextette under the leadership of Charles Geesey, Esq., sang the
national anthem "America." The singers also rendered other appropriate
selections, at intervals, during the afternoon. Hon. D. J. Neff, the oldest
active member of the bar , delivered the address of welcome. He was followed by
Hon. Augustus S. Landis with a historical address which occupied an hour in the
delivery.Other short addresses were made by Hon. William Dorris of Huntingdon,
one of the five surviving members of the original bar, Hon. John Scott of
Philadelphia, and Hon. John Fenlon of Ebensburg also among the few survivors of
that first court in Blair County nearly fifty years ago. Mr. Justice John Dean
of the Supreme Bench, was the last speaker after which W. L. Pascoe Esq., of
Tyrone, at 5 o'clock, moved the adjournment of the meeting in a few well chosen
sentences.

Among the
distinguished guests present were: Hon. John Dean of Hollidaysburg, Hon. A. V.
Barker and Hon. John Fenlon of Ebensburg, Hon. John M. Bailey and Hon. William Dorris of
Huntingdon, Hon. John Scott and H. 0. Kline of Philadelphia, Hon. J. H.
Longenecker of Bedford, Hon. Scott Alexander of Fulton County, and
others.

The addresses of
Col. Neff and Judge Landis are given in full on the following pages.

In. the evening the
bar and invited guests assembled at the Logan House, at 8 o'clock, for a
reception and banquet. They sat down. to the banquet table at 9:45 and, with the
exception of some attorneys from Hollidaysburg and Tyrone who were obliged to
leave on the 12 o'clock train, did not quit the banquet hall until 7 o'clock in
the morning. No wines nor intoxicants of any kind were served, and the last two
hours were spent in responding to the toasts, J. S. Leisenring, Esq.,
toast-master.

Hon. L. W. Hall, of Harrisburg, to whom had been
assigned the task of responding to "The Lawyer" was not present and this toast
was not offered. Mr. Justice John Dean responded to the toast "The Judiciary"
and spoke feelingly. Thos. H. Greevy, Esq., responded to the toast "Our Clients"
in a humorous vein. W. I. Woodcock, Esq., in the absence of Judge Bell, who was
unable to remain to the end of the banquet, responded to the toast "Our Guests."
Most of the guests of the afternoon were present at the reception and banquet at
night, and the Christian Endeavor Sextette led by Chas. Geesey, Esq., rendered
some pleasing music. The Committee on Arrangements was composed of Hon. Martin
Bell, Hon. A. S. Landis, A. A. Stevens, Hon. D. J. Neff, J. S. Leisenring, W. L.
Hicks, W. S. Hammond and H. A. McFadden.

Thursday morning's
sun rose in a cloudless sky and the temperature was not much above 70 degrees
Fahrenheit at any time ; a gentle breeze making the day a perfect one for
marching, no dust and no mud. This was Military Day and shortly after 11 a. m.
the columns of soldiers moved off over the route assigned in the following
order:

Chief Marshal
Theodore Burchfield and Staff,

Altoona City Band,
Fifth Regiment Drum Corps,

Fifth Regiment
National Guards of Pa.,

Battery "B" of the
Second Brigade,

Sheridan Troop, N.
G. P., of Tyrone, Capt. C. S. W. Jones,

Carriages
containing members of the General Committe and distinguished Guests,

Second Division--Marshall and Staff,

Hollidaysburg
Band,

2

Post No. 39, Grand
Army of the Republic,

Logan
Band,

Post No. 62, Grand
Army of the Republic,

Roaring Spring Drum
Corps,

Post No. 82, Grand
Army of the Republic, of Roaring Spring,

Continental Drum
Corps,

Post No.172, Grand
Army of the Republic, of Tyrone,

St. Patrick's Band
of Gallitzin,

Post No.426, Grand
Army of the Republic, of Bellwood,
Reese's Cadet Drum Corps,

Post No.468, Grand
Army of the Republic,

"
474,
"

"
574,
"

People's Band of
South Fork,

Encampment No.17
and 37 Union Veteran Legion,

Camps Nos. 12, 89 and 234, Union Veteran
Legion,

Carriage containing
old Soldiers,

Bellwood
Band,

German
Veteran Association of Altoona.

The route traversed
was from the starting point near the depot in Gaysport, across the bridge into
Hollidaysburg, Allegheny street to Juniata street, to Mulbury street, to Amelia
street, to Allegheny street, to Jones street, to Walnut street, to Juniata street, to Allegheny Street
toUnion street. Distinguished guests not in carriages reviewed the procession in
front of the Court House.

The parade ended
about noon and at 2:45 p.m. the ceremony of unveiling the monument began in
front of the Court House. The Semi-Centennial Chorus of 200 voices, Charles
Geesy, Esq., director, sang "America" in a thrilling manner, and Rev. D. S.
Monroe, D. D., presiding elder of the Altoona District, Central Pennsylvania
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, offered the invocation and at its
conclusion the choir sang "To Thee, 0 Country," after which Comrade Henry L.
Bunker unveiled the Soldiers' Monument and Captain Robert Johnson formally
presented it to the County Commissioners. Hon. J. D. Hicks, member of Congress
from Blair County received it in the name of the Commissioners and made a
brilliant ten minute speech in which he said that 4,000 soldiers from Blair
County fought for the preservation of the Union and there was not a battle
fought during the war in which there were not men engaged who were from Blair
County.

Thomas J. Stewart,
Adjutant General of Pennsylvania, followed in an able oration occupying half an
hour, after which the band played a patriotic air. The assembled multitude then
sang the doxology "Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow," and the meeting
adjourned at 4.06 p.m. In the evening the Grand Army Posts held a Camp Fire in
front of the Court House and thus the exercises of the second day
closed.

Friday, the last
day of the celebration, dawned bright and clear, and was a most perfect summer
day, the temperature being most delightful, 70 to 78 degrees Fahrenheit, and a
pleasant air stirring. By six o'clock in the morning the electric cars to
Hollidaysburg were crowded with
people to the County seat. Most of the stores and the P. R. R. shops in Altoona
were closed all day. Both electric cars and railroad were taxed to their
full capacity carrying passengers and by half past ten in the morning, when the
great civic or industrial parade started, there were not less than 25,000 people
in Hollidaysburg and Gaysport, and the total number of visitors during the
day was nearly 40,000; being about double that of the preceding day.

The parade started
at 10.30 from Gaysport and marched across the Juniata river to Hollidaysburg, to
Montgomery street, along Montgomery to Blair, along Blair to Jones, along Jones
to Walnut, along Walnut to Juniata,
along Juniata to Mulberry, along Mulberry to East Hollidaysburg and Allegheny street, along Allegheny street
past the Court House, where it was reviewed by Judge Dean, the Mayor of Altoona
and Burgesses of the different Boroughs of the County, to Gaysport where
it disbanded.

It consisted of
eleven divisions, led by Chief Marshal W. C. Roller, Jesse L. Hartman, Chief of
Staff, and aides.

The first division
comprised the Red Men, representing the aboriginese, carriages with guests, Executive Committee, the Altoona
City Band, and the various lodges ofOdd Fellows of the
County, twenty or more, and
the National Boys' Brigade, of
Altoona.

SECOND DIVISION
comprised the Patriotic Sons of
America, nine camps.

THIRD
DIVISION-Uniformed Rank Knights of
Pythias and U. R. K. P. Band of Pittsburgh.

FOURTH
DIVISION-Junior Order United
American Mechanics, several councils and numbering 1,000 men, the Oneida Social clubof Altoona and the Tyrone Division Brotherhood
of Locomotive Engineers.

and the
Phoenix Fire Company of Hollidaysburg with engine and full equipment,
Bellwood Firemen, Bellwood Band, Druncansville Fire Company and hose cart, South
Fork Fire Company and Band, and other visiting firemen. An old fashioned
hand fire engine brought up the rear.

TENTH
DIVISION.-Employes of Hollidaysburg Rolling Mill, 150 strong, in working costume
and carrying some of their work implements.

ELEVENTH DIVISION.
-Floats. -M e r chandise and machinery displays, ancient relics, old canal boat,
old stage coach, etc., The float of William F. Gable &, Co. of Altoona, was
the most artistic and costly one in this division, representing an immense urn
entirely covered with expensive lace, "Justice" with her scales, "Liberty" and "Arnerica ;" all draped
in white and drawn by eight gaily
comparisoned white horses, in tandem, with attendants dressed in white. The
Young America Clothing Co. also had a beautiful historical
tableaux.

The procession was
about one and one-half miles in length and was three-quarters of an hour passing
a given point. Between five and six thousand persons took part in it, while
twenty-five to thirty thousand spectators lined the streets along which they
passed.

In the afternoon
the Semi-Centennial. exercises were held in the Court House, beginning at 2:40.
The room was packed long before the hour for beginning : the crowd began to fill it soon after twelve
o'clock. As the Court room will only contain about 1000 persons it follows that
not one-thirtieth part of the people in town could gain admission.

At 2:10 the Altoona
City Band played a patriotic selection.

At 2:45 Judge Bell
called the meeting to order and made a few brief remarks in which he illustrated
the wonderful improvements in the past fifty years by comparing the old mail
packets, taking a week to carry mail from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, while now
we could flash our I words by telephone from New York to Chicago almost
instantaneously. He paid a high tribute to the enterprise of Altoona and her
wonderful growth, and to the broad and liberal policy of the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company, the richest in the word, probably. Rev. J. F. Hartman, pastor
of the Second Lutheran church of Altoona, offered a prayer, the Semi-Centerinial
Chorus of two hundred voices sang "Red, White and Blue ' " after which Hon. J.
D. Hicks read the Prize Poem, "Little Blair ' " written by Mrs. Ida Clarkson
Lewis. The Band and Choir rendered some more music, and the chairman introduced Hon. John Dean, one of the
Justices of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, a native and life-long resident
of the county, who delivered the historical address of the occasion; a maserly
effort, dealing largely with the religious predilections of the first settlers
of the county. The paper is given in full on the following pages.

The address was
followed by more music and then, after a few preliminary remarks suitable to the
occasion, the Rev. Father Cornelius Sheehan. pastor of St. Mary's Catholic
church, Hollidaysburg, pronounced the benediction, and the meeting adjourned at
4:35 p.m. The formal ceremonies of the celebration closed with the adjournment
of this meeting, I but one of the most entertaining features was yet to come -
the pyrotechnic display on Campus Ridge, near Lakemont Park. This began at 8:50
at night with the ascension of a large paper balloon to which explosives were
attached. The air being calm it went almost straight upward till it was lost to
view among the stars. Fifteen hundred dollars worth of fireworks were used in
the entire display of the evening, some of the set pieces being very fine, among
them a full sized locomotive engine and tender. The closing one, "Good Night,"
sent out its last sparkling scintillation at 10:33 p.m., and Blair County's
Serni-Centennial passed into history.

On the whole it was
air immense success from first to last. Not a hitch of any kind occurred. The
assembled crowd was larger than any which Blair County had ever seen and not an
accident worth recording happened during the entire time.

In Condron's Opera
House, Hollidaysburg, was maintained an exhibition of relics worth many
thousands of dollars, as such, leaned by the individual owners and free for the
inspection of everybody. They were surrounded at all times with hundreds of
appreciative visitors.

Among these relics
and other exhibits were old tomahawks, arrow heads, Indian utensils, guns which
had shot Indians, guns, pistols and swords that had been used in the revolution
and earlier, guns and swords of the war of 1812, the Mexican war and the war of
the Rebellion, the first printing press used in Blair County, copies of the
first newspapers printed here in 1834-5-6, old deeds one hundred years old and
more, the original charter of the Portage Railroad, a clock that kept the time
in the Portage shops in 1832, still in running order, a piano made at Flowing
Spring in 1827, and hundreds of other equally interesting relics; pictures of
all the Judges of the county since its organization, etc.

4

The Address of Hon. Daniel J.
Neff, Welcoming to the Celebration the Guests of the Bar
Association.

The people of this
county, and others from far and near, who were at one time residents thereof, or
who are interested in its history, will, during this week, commemorate the
fiftieth anniversary of the organization of the county. They will review the
progress that has been made in art, sciences and invention, the improvements in
machinery, in the modes of transportation and the growth and development of the
county in population and wealth of the past 50 years. The occasion will be most
interesting and instructive to all the participants. The judiciary and the bar
of the county have deemed it advisable and opportune, that they also should
observe the occasion and commemorate it in a suitable manner. The administration
of the laws deeply concerns all the inhabitants of the county. In all
enlightened commonwealths the due administration of justice has been esteemed as
of great public interest, of supreme importance, and an upright and independent
judiciary one of the safeguards of civil liberty. When we consider the character
and attainments, learning and ability, of the judges, past and present, who have
occupied the bench, we cannot doubt that this county has been fortunate in its
judiciary. Judges have sat in our courts who have shed a luster upon the
jurisprudence of the commonwealth, and who would compare not unfavorably with
John Marshall, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
with Sir Matthew Hale, Chief Justice Mansfield, or with Sir Edward Coke, the
greatest oracle of municipal jurisprudence in England.

Speaking of the
amenities of the bench, I once heard Judge Taylor pay a high compliment to the
Supreme Court. A gentlemen of the bar had been arguing a question before him at
considerable length. The judge was against him, but he persisted in his
argument. The judge finally told him it was useless to argue the question
further; he had decided it. But he said, "you have your remedy; take an exception, and you can take the case up
and have my decision reviewed by a court that cannot err." His honor specially
emphasized the last two words.

We can look back
over 50 years of: eventful history and contemplate with interest the many
important issues that have been tried, the important decisions of our courts that have been rendered
establishing the rights of person and property and defining the landmarks of the
law. There is, at times, much in the proceedings of courts to excite and attract
popular interest. There are witnessed the tragic and the comic sides of human
life, its ups and downs; life
histories and life tragedies are rehearsed with more of passion and pathos than
upon the mimic stage, and the curtain falls upon many a scene of human misery
and despair. The forensic displays of the Roman Forum in the palmy days of the republic and the
empire, the great trials of thrilling and historic interest in Westminster hall,
its meridian glory, are remembered with an absorbing and never fading interest.
There, within the old walls of Westminster hall, "has stood the Duke of Norfolk,
to answer the charge of asserting the right of Mary Queen of Scots, to the
throne of England and Earl of Strafford, accused of high treason against the
sovereign whom he served too faithfully, and Warren Hastings, around whose was
the gorgeous splendor of eastern imagery evoked by the spell of eloquence from
the lip of Sheridan and Burke."

The gentlemen of
the bar who attended the first court held in this county in 1846, and were then
admitted to practice in the several courts of this county, and who are yet
living will, no doubt, reflect upon the many changes that have taken place in
the intervening years. They probably journeyed to Hollidaysburg by canal boat by
stage coach, or perhaps partly by canal and partly over the inclined planes of
the Portage Railroad. The Pennsylvania canal, in connection with the Portage
Railroad, constituting a great public highway between the east and the west, was
regarded at that time, and in fact was, a work of great magnitude, of supreme
importance. Time had been when the mode of transportation, at least in Central
Pennsylvania, was principally by broad wheeled Conestoga wagons lumbering slowly
along the pike between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, or arks of rude and
primitive design, floating down our rivers. The canal east and west of the
mountains, traversing in many places dense forests, with the connecting links of
the rail and inclined plane, across the Alleghenies, extending through a country
abounding in mineral resources and undeveloped wealth, constructed with arduous
labor and consummate engineering skill, was considered one of the greatest
achievements of the age. The Allegheny Portage was pronounced by enlightened
engineers in England and France as one of the then wonders of the world. The
exalted purpose, the vast importance of these works, connecting as they did with
the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers at Pittsburgh, and with the Ohio and
Mississippi establishing a great commercial waterway or highway to the Gulf of
Mexico, extending in their beneficial effects to the utmost limits of

5

the national
domain, and in their prospective operation and effects into the far future could
not be overestimated. The engineers and scientists of that day were men of high
intelligence and varied knowledge, who had studied carefully the most advanced
systems of inland navigation and railway construction in Europe and applied the knowledge thus acquired to the
advancement of great enterprises at home. Standing in the van of
civilization and human progress, they helped to build up a great Commonwealth in
enduring strength. The canal commissioner of that day was an important man,
sometimes bigger than the Governor himself or the Legislature, the power behind
the throne greater than the throne itself, making and unmaking the fortunes of
men. The canal boat captain also was a big man. He walked the deck of his craft
with as proud a step as the commander of a man-of-war walks his quarterdeck. These great public works, it was
supposed, would be enduring would last for ages, like the Roman aqueducts
or the Appain, over which, for centuries, the legions of Rome marched to their
distant conquests. But the tireless energy and the inventive genius of man have
conquests over the forces of nature and the elements undreamed of in that day.
The continent is spanned by great railways grappling the states together with
hooks of steel and bands of iron. Queen Victoria can say "good morning" to
Grover Cleveland through the submarine cable. It is said that Chauncy M. Depew
recently a message around the world--25,000 miles-- in four minutes. We have the
inestimable advantages and conveniences of the electric railway. The telephone
is an accomplished fact and the Roentgen ray has been discovered. During the
last years dynasties have risen and fallen, there have been social and
political upheavals in various parts of the world, and mighty blows have been
struck for civil liberty, the rights of men and the emancipation of the
oppressed.

The world moves and
the young man of this age who would keep up with the procession must step
lively.

The changes in our
laws have kept pace with the progress of the age in other respects. These
changes and innovations upon the common law have been in the direction of reform
and improvement tending to the elevation man and the amelioration of the
condition of woman.

The act of April
9,1849, exempting property of a debtor to the value of $300 from levy and sale
on execution or by distress for rent is a humane and beneficient law, as are
also all the various laws protecting and giving a preference to the wages of
manual labor.

The legal status of
married women has been entirely changed, and sweeping modifications have been
made by the acts of 1848, 1887 and 1893.

The act of April 11, 1848.
was the first great departure. It provided that every species and description of
property, whether real, personal or mixed, which may be owned by or belong to
any single woman shall continue to be the property of such woman as fully after
her marriage as before, and all such property, of whatever nature or kind, which
shall accrue to any married woman during coverture, by will, descent, deed of
conveyance or otherwise, shall be owned and enjoyed by such married woman as her
own separate property, and such property shall not be subject to levy and
execution for the debts or liabilities of her husband.

The acts of 1887
and 1893 were still greater departures in the same direction, tending to the
protection of married women in their right of property.

In our
grandmothers' days a married woman could hardly be said to own her spinning
wheel in her own right. Now the dashing femme covert can spin along the public
highway on her wheel and hold and own her spinning wheel in defiance of the
world.

The Constitution of
1874 made great and radical changes in the fundamental law.

The act of May 25,
1887, known as the civil procedure act, abolishing the distinctions theretofore
existing between the different forms of actions ex contractu and actions ex
delicto, and providing that the plaintiff's declaration shall consist of a
concise statement of his demand, wrought a great and needed reform, and greatly
simplified the pleadings and proceedings in the trial of causes. All these
changes were made during the last 50 years. Much of the old and curious learning
of a former age contained in old and musty tomes Doomsday books has become
obsolete. Much of what might be termed the rubbish of the law has been swept
away.

At the time of the
organization of the county and for many years afterwards, the judge and the
lawyers usually wrote down all the testimony during the progress of the trial.
We are relieved of that labor now, as the official reporter and stenographer
does that work. The judge's charge and the testimony are all typewritten by the
reporter, and the pleadings filed are also usually typewritten.

In former times the
Altoona lawyer would pack his grip on Monday morning and engage lodging at a
hotel at the county seat for a week or during the sitting of the court. For many
years during the terms of court I regularly occupied room 29, at the American
House, then kept by that jolly
landlord and genial host, Daniel K.
Ramey. Now all that is changed by
the electric cars, which run every 15 minutes and land the Altoona
lawyers at the steps of the court
house. The Altoona lawyer can stand
at the telephone in his comfortable office and by issuing his oral mandate
through the phone can

6

put the whole
clerical force of the prothonotary's office in motion or he can be treated to a
learned dissertation on practice by Judge Bowers at long range.

Judges and lawyers
have, from time immemorial, been inclined to polite, social intercourse and
rational enjoyment. They have been disposed to reasonable relaxation after
labors of the bench and the contests of the forum.

In England, in the
olden time, the sergeants at law were inducted into their office with great
state and ceremony. It was attended
with feasting, which sometimes lasted for several days, and at these feasts the
lord chancellor and some of the highest dignitaries of the realm, sometimes
including the king himself, sat down. On these festive occasions the lord
chancellor usually headed the procession to the banqueting hall, thereby giving
the sanction of his official approval to this important function. The newly
created sergeants at law were allowed the high privilege of paying the bills for
these banquets. Rich and fragrant are the memories that cluster around the inns
of court and chancery, which Ben Johnson characterizes as "the noblest nurseries
of humanity and liberty in the kingdom." It is said that the inns of court and
chancery were celebrated for the magnificence of their entertainments. True to
those honored and immemorial traditions, and cherishing the past associations of
the bench and bar of Blair county, the Blair County Bar association have invited
the judges of adjoining and adjacent counties, and all the lawyers now living
formerly were resident practitioners at our Bar, and the judge of the Supreme
Court sat for many years as president judge in this county, and the only three
ex-associate judges of this county now living to participate in this
semi-celebration.

It is gratifying to
us to meet here so many worthy representatives of the judiciary and gentlemen of
the bar from other localities.

Cambria County is
here represented by its learned President Judge. The rarified atmosphere of that
elevated plateau upon which Ebensburg stands seems to have quickened and
sharpened the wits of its Judges and lawyers, for they have always been
celebrated for their wit. Michael Daniel Magellan, Michael Hasson and Robert L.
Johnson were all in their day, noted wits; Frank P. Tierney, who many years ago,
removed from Ebensburg to Altoona and died some years ago, was a genuine wit,
and as a mimic he had few equals. Although of Irish descent he could delineate the German or Irish character
with equal facility. His mantle has fallen upon a gentleman who is now the
acknowledged wit of our bar. I forbear to mention his name as he is present, and
I know he is averse to public notoriety. It may not be said of him, perhaps, as
was said of one of the characters in the "School for Scandal" that his wit costs
him nothing, as it is always at the expense of a friend. It might be said,
however that it costs him nothing in this sense : It costs him no effort. It is
spontaneous. It effervescences and bubbles like champagne. But I fear I trespass
on Judge Landis' domain. He is expected to give us the history of the Blair
County Bar. It is, I presume a clear case of trespass quare clausum
fregit.

The Supreme Court
of the State is represented here by one of its learned justices who, on this
anniversary, can look back with satisfaction on the many years during which he
occupied the bench in this county with credit and distinction.

There is a
gentleman here who formerly practiced at this bar, although a resident of
Huntingdon, now residing in Philadelphia. He was admitted at the first court
held in 1846. Those who heard him at the bar in days gone by will esteem
themselves fortunate in having the opportunity of seeing him and hearing him
again.

There is a
gentleman from Harrisburg present who years ago enjoyed unbounded popularity and
was a power in law and politics in this county. His numerous friends will greet
him with the cordiality of the days of yore.

To the Judges of
neighboring counties, to the Judges of the Supreme Court, to the old members of
the bar, to the ex-Associate Judges of the county, the only three now living, to
all who have responded to our invitation and kindly favored us with their
presence, the Blair County Bar Association sends greeting and extends a Cordial
welcome to a participation in all there is of interest, of' cherished memories,
and of enjoyment in the celebration of our Semi-Centennial. Few, if any of us,
will see Blair's centennial.

May we now hope
that the centennial of 1946 will be the dawn for our County and for our country
of the millennial morn of a yet grander and nobler destiny. But as we may not be
there to see it let us thank God that we are living to see the Semi-Centennial,
and make the best of this occasion, while the train stops at this half-way
station.

7

Address of Hon. Aug. S. Landis,
History of the Bar of Blair County.

It has been said
that the history of a revolution is often but the history of one man. By proper
antithesis, it is perhaps just as true that the history of a legal bar is the
history of many men.

When it is
remembered that the component parts are the judges, invested with the delegated
powers of the law, the attorneys and barristers who invite the application of
these powers to obtain for suitors a resultant product called justice, the
officer who records and perpetuates the adjudications of the court, and that
otherexecutive department, which relentlessly
enforces the law as crystalized into its peremptory mandate, many men with
diversified minds give it body, efficacy and character. What they thus havedone during fifty years constitutes its history for
that period.

The bar of this
county came into existence in the year 1846. It had been
along struggle whether there should be a Blair county. The subject was
first discussed about the year 1839. This town was then a prosperous, growing
town. It was at the head of canal navigation,. It was the
point of transhipment fromcanal to railroad
transportation. It was on the
only traffic thoroughfare in the state. These conditionsbrought many people here. The state employed many men to
operate the public improvements. Large forwarding houses were erected, and their
owners handled the ever-increasing freight tonnagepassing east and west. Large capital was
embarked in this business, and in mercantile and manufacturing enterprises. Bituminous coal found upon
the land of Samuel Lemon, near the Summit, became a leading article of
trade for domestic use and transportation. Whilst it was the only great
distributing point for a neighborhood of large radius, it was also the entrepot
for the products of a rapidly developing territory. Its promise of a future
urban population and wealth invited many from other parts, who came to share its
generous and flattering fortunes.

This increased
population and business necessarily gave rise to litigation, and applications
for various purposes to the public officers and the courts. Huntingdon county,
of which it was part, had its county seat at Huntingdon, which lay thirty miles
away, to be reached by laborious and wearisome driving over two mountains. This inconvenience gave rise to the effort to have
erected a new county, of which this busy and growing centre should be the county
seat.

During the six or
seven years when the subject was discussed, whilst all were favorable to the
project, many were active in the work until it was finally accomplished. Among
them should be named William Williams, afterward president of the Exchange bank
at this place: Peter Cassidy, a well-known surveyor: Peter Hewit, Silas Moore,
Ed. McGraw, John Walker, Dr. Joseph A Landis, Dr. James Coffey,Samuel Calvin,
William McFarland, Joseph Dysart, George R. McFarlane, William C. McCoimick
James M. Bell and R. A. McMurtrie.

The necessary
legislation to erect the county having failed at the first session of the
legislalure in which a bill was presented, it was finally enacted at the session
of 1846, and was approved by Governor Francis R. Shunk on the 26th of February,
1846. When the news came to the people of the new county there was great
rejoicing, and it was a day in this county capital in which the people were
buoyant with an expectation they felt to be assured of great future development
and prosperity.

This only in a
measure was realized, for in a few yearsthe colossus which reared itself but a
few miles away cast its shadow upon the new plant and chilled and checked its
young life. It can, however, assume to itself one comfort - that it lives to
celebrate its survival of its disappointment, and the possession of many
advantages,conveniences and benefits which others do not have and which keep it
abreast with the day's civilization, socially, morally and
intellectually.

The county, under
the act, took from Huntingdon county the townships of Allegheny, Antis, Snyder,
Tyrone, Frankstown, Blair, Huston, Woodbury, and part of Morris. Bedford was
compelled to give up North Woodbury and Greenfield townships. Since then, the
townships of Juniata, Freedom, Logan and Taylor have been formed from other
townships. The boroughs of the county are Hollidaysburg, Gaysport, Martinsburg,
Duncansville, Roaring Spring, Tyrone, East Tyrone, Williamsburg, Bellwood and
Juniata. Altoona is the only incorporated city.

Thus, in 1846, a
new county was added to the state's long list, with a population of some 17,000
and an area of 510 square miles. The population in 1890 was over
70,00.

It was, by the same
act, made part of the Sixteenth judicial district. This district already
comprised the counties of Franklin, Bedford, Somerset and Fulton. Judge Jeremiah
S. Black was the president judge, and thus, by the enactment, he became the
first judge of this county.

It is well, also,
to remark that Huntingdon county formed part of one of the original districts of
the commonwealth - the Fourth judicial district - which embraced many of the
original counties, and which was justly noted for having furnished so many able
and eminent judges and lawyers in both the supreme and common pleas
courts.

Until the new court
house should be completed court sat in the old Methodist church building on
Walnut street west of Montgomery street. This was a one-story brick building
perched upon the brink of a hill, thirty feet from the street. The approach to
it was by a broad stairway and for the temporary purpose was convenient and
suitable. On the 27th of July 1846, Judge Black with his associates, George R.
McFarlane and Daniel McConnell, at 10 a.m. ascended the platform, and the crier
opened the court with the usual formality. Colonel John Cresswell was district
attorney, but there was but little to demand his official attention.

The following
persons were sworn to the bar:

LIST OF ATTORNEYS COMPOSING THE ORIGINAL BLAIR COUNTY BAR
ASSOCIATION.(Members sworn in July 27,
1846.)

Making forty-nine in all. On Tuesday, the 28th, three
more were added: George Taylor, afterwards president judge; Alex Gwin and John
A. Blodgett making fifty-two as the original number of the membership.

No
causes were tried and the traverse jury was discharged, and the court adjourned
on the 28th of July.

Of the court and bar as thus
constituted, except five, all are dead. The judges are all dead. and of the bar
ex-Senator John Scott, Colonel William Dorris, Hon. Titian J. Coffey,
ex-assistant attorney general of the United States, Hon. John Fenlon, ex-member
of the house of representatives, and William P. Orbison, esq., alone survive;
but some of these survivors are here today, and whilss I am silent as to them,
they, themselves, will tell us of the past.

A glance at the personnel
of this court and its bar in the light of their subsequent history will disclose
a remarkable body of men. They were educated lawyers. They were nearly all
proficient in their professional knowledge and experience.

8

The same care, zeal,
caution and research which the lawyer of today exerts, was practiced then. He
strove to attain to the same acumen and success then as now. The professional
ambition and ethics of that day are indeed made more conspicuous by the lower
grade of principle and tarnished acts, which too often offend the honorable
lawyer of the present.

We can recall the appearance of the
president judge. His massive head and intellectual face were impressive to both
acquaintance and stranger. He was the man of whom, under Dr. Johnson's conditions, it would
be asked, who is he? He was learned, decided, courteous and dignified. He
possessed the confidence of the bar, and during his remaining life he was the
admiration of his many friends. He became a justice of the supreme court,
attorney general of the United States and a delegate to the constitutional
convention of 1873. He continued, after leaving office, to be one of the busiest
and most eminent lawyers in the land. He was of counsel in the argument before
the presidential commission in 1877and his effort before that tribunal exhibited many of his
most conspicuous, as well as most valued, characteristics.

Among those who were sworn to the bar before him on that day
was one who subsequently became as widely known as Judge Black. Andrew G. Curtin
was then but a modest lawyer in Bellefonte. His career in state politics as the
great war governor of Pennsylvania, minister to Russia, delegate to the
constitutional convention of the state and member of congress with national
fame, is now easily recalled.

These two men met during the year 1873 in Philadelphia on
the floor of the convention. With no partisanship, they vied in the responsible
task of perfecting the fundamental law of the state. Both had achieved fame,
both had the respect and affection of their colleagues, and both left their
impress upon the instrument which now constitutes our organic law. Both were
often participants in many controversies on that floor. The writer
recalls a scene of pleasurable excitement and surprise when, in the
discussion of the question of legislative apportionment, the judge learned from
his adversary that his vast learning was of no value compared to the governor's
practical knowledge of men and things.

A well known figure at the bar in those days, and many years
thereafter, was Mr. Miles. He was very fair in complexion, large and
handsome. His reticence gave him a dignity which he never lost. He was laborious
and indefatigable. His arguments were long and exhaustive. He stood at the
counsel table to talk to the court, and sometimes stood at the witness box,
requiring the judge to turn in that direction to face him. His voice was high
and sharp and penetrated every part of the room. His manner was earnest and
convincing, and to the boyish mind the wonder was that anything
more need be said. He continued in active practice for many years and died
in Peoria, Ill., in 1877, leaving an honored memory.

Mr. McAllister, of Bellefonte, was an able and industrious
lawyer. In professional zeal, energy and prowess he was an Ajax Telamon. He was
a member of the constitutional convention of 1873, and brought with him for the
fulfilment of' the duties of that important office, a deep sense of his own
responsibility. Nothing seemed to escape his attention, and no one department of
the fundamental law was less worthy of his scrutiny than another. He was often
admonished by his brethren that his zeal and labors must sap even his rugged
health. He succumbed before the close of the session, and was succeeded by
Samuel Calvin, whose name is likewise in this list of original
attorneys.

Mr. Calvin, when elected to fill Mr. McAllister's chair, had
practically retired from professional duties, and the call to him was opportune,
and agreeable to his tastes. He had long been a successful and able lawyer, and
was a lawyer, in its highest professional sense. His integrity and honor were
his most valued possessions. They were never cheapened by being bartered nor
tarnished by his holding them. He tried his cases in the old style. There were
no stenographers then and with scrupulous fullness, he wrote down every word
uttered by the witness. He had no patience with the stupid witness. His "Sir," "I don't hear you Sir," and "repeat it Sir,"
uttered in intimidating tones to the astonished witness, was the delight of the
student and young lawyer looking on somewhere in the bar. Few of the
present bar know him and his peculiarities; but some of us here today remember
him as the learned lawyer, a ripe scholar in literature and the classics,
and the most warm hearted and genial of gentlemen. It only remains to be said
of him, that he was a member of the thirty-first congress in 1851, and was a
follower of Henry Carey in his theories of social science. He met Mr.
Carey on the floor of the convention, and a friendship sprang up between them
that lasted during his remaining life. His son, Matthew Calvin, succeeded him at
the bar.

Colonel McMurtrie was in this list. He was a close friend of
Mr. Calvin. He was for many years the commander of the militia under the old
state system, and he mustered his undisciplined forces in the month of May for
many years. He was a member of the legislature in 1863. He was long an active
practitioner and stood in the bar and community as a man and lawyer of great
probity and honor.

Robert L. Johnston, after many years of most active
practice, became the president judge of Cambria county. Alex. King became judge
of the Bedford and Franklin district, as did also F. M. Kimmell. Job Mann was a
member of the Twenty-fourth, Thirtieth and Thirty-first congresses and state
treasurer. Samuel L. Russell was also in the Thirty third congress and a
member of the constitutional convention of 1873. A. W.
Benedict, of Huntingdon, was a member of the legislature of 1863. John Cresswell
was a member of the state senate in 1857, and was speaker of the house in 1889,
and Thaddeus Banks, a member of the legislature with John Scott in 1862. Mr.
Scott afterwards became a United States senator, and at the close of his term
became the general solicitor of the Pennsylvania Railroad company.

Ephraim Banks was the auditor general of the state in
1851, and an associate judge of the court of common pleas of Mifflin county. He
was a man of great decision of character and of great dignity and worth. On one
occasion, on the bench in the trial of a case, he differed from the president
judge in his views, and, carrying his associate with him, he charged a
jury over the head of his chief.

Thaddeus Banks was long conspicuous at this bar and, during
his very active career, was prominent in the most noteworthy ligitation. He was
a man of fine social qualities, and of a warm and generous heart. He was the
democratic candidate for judge against Dean and Taylor in 1871, but was
defeated.

Samuel S.Blair commenced a brilliant career a few years
after his admission. His introduction to public notice in the celebrated case of
Summerville vs. Jackson continued him in the public eye and brought him to
the front. He developed into a strong and learned lawyer, and in all this part
of the state he was for many years as an industrious and able lawyer, facile
princeps. He was elected to the Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh congresses. He
was succeeded in his office by his son, Mr. John D. Blair.

John Williamson lived to be an octogenarian. Though he lived
in Huntingdon, it was his habit for many years to visit this court and
participate in the trial of cases -- mostly in the quarter sessions. His
arguments to the jury furnished the most delightful entertainment to his
hearers. He was a nervous speaker, but as he progressed he
was fluent and accurate. He abounded in both humor and pathos, and won for
himself a popularity that long survived his retirement from our
midst.

M. D. Magehan, familiarly known as "Michael Dan," with his
contemporary, Michael Hasson, came to us from the Cambria bar. The wit and fancy
of those well known and excellent Irish gentlemen were the admiration of many
indulgent friends in their day, and form the effervescent sparkle of many a
story which survives to this hour.

John A. Blodget was a frequent visitor from Bedford, where
he practiced until he retired. He generally walked from Bedford, and was in his
place when court was called. He was a tall gentleman, dignified yet free and
social in his intercourse.

9

He was a man of fine literary taste and attainments. He
could write a legal opinion, or a poem, with equal ease. The ludicrous incidents
of the bar were often rendered by this versatile gentleman in verse, and I know
of no one in all this bar of fifty years of life who was like him, and could
make himself so appreciable to his fellows

Not many years after the organization of the county, came
from Bedford, David H. Hofins. His father was German physician , and coming to
this country as a young man, he married, and David was born and educated here,
graduating at Franklin and Marshall college. He was, during his short life, for
he died in 1859, concerned in nearly all the important litigation of' his time.
His erect and well apparelled form gave him an imposing appearance. He was a
bachelor, but most loyally recognized the claims of society, which then was
conspicious for its refinement and amenities. He was the idol of the people and
it was common to hear him extolled as the "model lawyer." The moment of his
passing came early in his career, and as blindness became from day to day more
imminent upon the unhappy man, the writer willingly helped him in his last work
till the end came. It was my sad task to pen the sketch which told of his
virtues and his frailties, to close his affairs, and place the stone that now
marks his resting place.

One more name of the fifty-two remains to be noted, George W.
Taylor. He was then 34 years of age and resident at Huntingdon. He early gave
promise of the future jurist. His prosecution of the case of the Commonwealth
vs. McConaughy in 1840, and the Flanigans in Cambria county in 1812, on
indictments for murder it was customarily said, drew him from obscurity and
established him permanently in the public estimation as a great
lawyer. He succeeded Judge Black as president judge, April 5, 1849
and remained upon the bench till November 1871. He tried many
important cases and was widely known in the state and recognized by the
supreme court as an able and learned judge. His later years to some extent were
given to agricultural pursuits and though of great learning and
judicial acumen, he was a man of plain manners and practical sense and
wisdom.

His prepared opinions
disclosed no attempts at useless embellishment, but were simple, plain and
strong. They thus furnished no rhetorical entertainment but they addressed the
perception of the mind and left it overwhelmed with conviction. He was a man of
very social habit . In the old court house it was his daily custom to linger at
the stove, or some other gathering place with McMurtrie, Calvin, Scott, Dean,
Hewit and others of us around him to listen to his many stories of people and
things, till, in many instances, suitors,
jurors, and counsel had noted a lost half hour by the clock. But when he
ascended to the bench the familiarity of the social intercourse just related was
left behind and as his eye swept the bar and the crowded spaces beyond, he was
again the "judge" and the dignity and the power of the law seemed to cover him
as with a garment.

In closing these reminiscences of the first lawyers, I
cannot omit mention of George A. Coffey,though he was not one of the
original members. He came from the ministry to the bar about 1850. He was
then in the full possession of developed mental power and learnig. He was
gifted, unique and brilliant. He was a scholar, an orator, a lawyer, though he
had not the time to become a great lawyer. He was cultured, social and admired.
His conversational powers were a delight to allwho knew him and won him a welcome everywhere. This faculty, and it was
the chief of his gifts, never seemed to desert him. His cordial reception of the
writer at his bedside, not many days before his death, and his pleasant,
cheerful conversation though under the sad circumstances of a fatal illness,
seemed to show it would abide till the end. He died in Philadelphia,
whither be went in 1861, to accept the appointment of United States district
attorney from President Lincoln.

Under the constitution of that date, laymen were appointed,
afterwards elected, associate judges. They sat with the president judge and
formed an important adjunct of the court. The first of this class of judges were
George R. McFarlane and Daniel McConnell. The latter was a man of strong mind
and great practical inelligence and enjoyed the confidence of all who knew him.
Judge McFarlane was then, and had been for years, a well-known man. He was the
proprietor of a foundry and machine works in this town, and evinced great
energy and uprightness in his business. He was engaged in many schemes of'
social reform and enjoyed a notoriety through alll the neighboring counties. He
was greatly loved by many and respected by all who knew him. His untimely death
- the result of an accident in his foundry in 1852--was deeply mourned by the
entire community, and inflicted upon it a loss felt for many years.

In all, the county has had nineteen associate judges. The
constitution of 1873 dispensed with them by making this county a single judicial
district.

Davis Brooke succeeded Judge McConnell in January 1848;
Judge Brooke was a man of fine personal appearance and great dignity. His snow
white hair was in pleasing contrast with his florid complexion. The
conventional black dress of that day, admirably supplemented those evidences of
his advanced age, and harmoniously accompanied the striking appearance of his
chief, Judge Black.

In the second year of Judge Brooke's term, there
occurred a most interesting judicial incident. It served to demonstrate the
existence then of a cerebral or psychical influence as hypnotism is
now.

There came to the county seat one day a man of the name of
Henry Loomis, and his wife, Submit C. Loomis. They advertised to give
lectures on mesmerism, to be illustrated and manifested by exhibitions of its
influence upon a susceptible subject. This subject was their
daughter, Martha. Whilst these exhibitions were being nightly given with
great success, one C. J. Sykes appeared upon the scene and employed Mr. Banks
and Mr. Cresswell to take out upon the allowance of Judge Brooke a writ of
habeas corpus, to take and restore to him his wife, Martha, who was 21 years of
age, and who, by her father and mother, was deprived of her liberty: he further
alleged that she was, under the spell of their mesmeric influence, deprived of
her free will; her affections diverted from the relator, her husband, her
health, physically and mentally, being sapped, and she was being sacrificed to
the greed of her parents, who could not entertain their audiences without
her.

To this the respondents replied that Martha was married to
Sykes in New York, but immediately thereafter he began to abuse her and treated
her with great cruelty, so that she fled to her
parents for protection and desired to remain with them.

The relator denied the allegations, alleging mercenary
motives on the part of the Loomises and praying to be allowed the companionship
of his wife. Calvin and Mr. Hollins represented the parents, and during two or
three days evidence was taken before Judge Brooke. Great interest was
manifested by the public; not only whether there was such a
thing, as mesmerism but as to what would be done with Martha. The court house
was packed with people, and public opinion and sympathy were
sharply divided.

Nearly a day was consumed in the argument of counsel,
and during the entire progress of the case not word had been
uttered by the judge, and speculation was rife as to when he would
be
prepared to decide the case. As soon as the last word was spoken by counsel the
judge immediately rose to his feet, and, bowing with great dignity and with
greater brevity, said, "Let Martha be discharged. The house instantly rang with
cheers, and amid the wildest exciteinent Martha and her parents were
fairly carried from the court room, while the wifeless Sykes was left to pursue
his solitary way. It is remarkable that the record shows no final disposition of
this case and the writer recalls it only from memory.

The business of the court grew slowly, though thirty-four
suits were brought to the first term. The first suit brought was that of Joseph
and Daniel Hollen vs. Thomas Crissman. "Debt." No, 11, July Term, 1846;
but there is no record of any judgment.

The first record of a else tried was that of Matthew Miller
vs. Henry Burt, assumpsit; with

10

a verdict October 20, 1846, for plaintiff of $139.45.

The first record of an action of
ejectment was that of James Stevens vs. J. Helfmitter, in which there was on the
20th October, 1846, a verdict for plaintiff.

During that same week five cases were tried, and one
non-suit entered after the jury was sworn. Names of counsel are not
given.

The first divorce suit was brought by Mary Armstrong against
her erring and delinquent husband, John. Mr. Coffey conducted the case and
obtained for Mary the coveted decree.

The first execution was issued by James Murty vs. John
Dougherty to obtain $23.75 and costs. The sheriff does not seem to have ever
returned his writ.

The first case in which was made a motion for a new trial
was in Bride & McKeehan vs. Zechariah G. Brown. No. 23, August term, 1843
brought from Huntingdon county. The verdict was for plaintiffs for $663.53, and
Mr. Brown's dissatisfaction is expressed by his motion for a new trial. Judge
Black was possibly no more favorable to re-trials than modern judges, and the
motion was refused. Mr. Brown was in his day a well known citizen and litigant.

The first auditor appointed was Titian J. Coffey, on the 2d
January, 1847. This method of' adjudicating many questions arising in the
settlement of estates and distribution of moneys has grown in favor and is
employed with frequency and convenience to the court and bar to this
time.

In the criminal department of the court there have been
interesting cases, which at the time of their disposition, elicited great
professional as well as public attention. I recall someof them.

In June, 1855, a negro slave ran away from his master in
Virginia, Mr. James Parsons. He reached this town on his way to Canada but was
closely followed by Parsons. As the negro entered a car early one morning to
cross the mountain on the Old Portage railroad he was discovered by Mr. Parsons,
who entered the car at the other end at the same time. The negro instantly fled,
pursued by Mr. Parsons, who caught him in Gaysport and brought him down to a
point near the present Kellerman house. The occurrence produced great
excitement. The entire colored population was aroused and those staunch
democrats, General George W. Potts, Major J. R. Crawford and Colonel John Piper,
with other prominent white citizens, at once came to the aid of the slave, and
under the guidance of Snyder Carr, a colored barber, and others of his race, the
refugee was taken in charge and spirited away, so that he was seen no more.
Parsons, however, was arrested upon the charges of kidnaping, assault and
battery and breach of the peace and bound over to appear at the July sessions.
Bills were found by the grand Jury, but the trials were continued to the October
sessions. At the appointed time Parsons appeared with his counsel, Charles J.
Faulkner and J. Randolph Tucker, appointed by the governor of Virginia. After
the commonwealth had progressed in the trial Mr. Hammond, the district attorney,
by leave of court took non-suits and the prisoner was released.

At this time, in view of the fugitive slave law, public
feeling ran very high and runaway slaves all over the north were aided
by the whites in their attempted escapes. Besides, the appearance of such eminent
counsel sent by the great commonwealth of Virginia gave the occurrence a
significance and an eclat entirely exceptional in the history of the bar.

Since the organization of this county there have been found
by the grand jury forty-one indictments for murder. Of these four were found
guilty of murder in the first degree. The others were
acquitted or convicted of manslaughter or murder in the second degree. The four
who were convicted of murder in the first degree were: Hutchinson, killing a
negro; James Shirley, killing his wife; McKim, his young traveling companion,
Samuel Norcross, and Dr. LewisBeach, killing his wife.

Hutchinson's case had a most unusual conclusion. He
wasconvicted at the December sessions,
1850, near the close of Governor W. F. Johnston's official term. For some reason
not explained the warrant for the prisoner's execution was not issued by the
governor before his term expired. Governor William Bigler
succeded him, and when his attention was called to the case, either for supposed
legal reasons or from scruples of conscience, he declined to issue his warrant
of death. Hutchinson remained a longtime about the prison, helping in the daily work and going
freely about the town, refusing in to leave. One day, however, he went quietly
away, no man pursuing, and he died some years later in an eastern
county.

Shirley was hanged in 1853, and his was the first capital
execution. George A. Coffey was the prosecuting attorney, having been deputized
by Joseph Kemp who was the district attorney.

McKim's case attracted a good deal of attention.
He had traveled to Altoona with young Norcross, a stranger here, won his
confidence, beguiled him into leaving thentrain and going a short
distance west t of town, to obtain the little money he
learned from him he possessed, he cruelly murdered him. The prosecution was
conducted by Mr. Hammond and William A. Stoke, then an eminent and able lawyer,
employed by the Pennsylvania Railroad company.

The defendant relied upon Mr. Hofius. McKim was a
large, fine looking man, and seemed incapable of committing such a crime. The
jury on the 7th of May, 1857, convicted him, and he was executed on the
21st of August, following.

The most celebrated, however, of the homicide cases of
the county, was the indictment and conviction of Dr. Beach. He was a practicing
physichian in Altoona, where he lived I with his wife, but had no children. One
morning at an early hour in the winter of 1884, he called at the house of Levi
Knott, the brother of his wife, and informed him that he had killed his wife,
but protested he had done the deed without present knowledge of the act. He was
arrested and tried during that year and was convicted. Mr. Spang, Mr.
Stevens and the writer defended him- the latter two by direction of
the court. Hon. J. D. Hicks was then district attorney.

The defense was insanity and the proof showed that twelve of
his blood relatives were either idiotic or insane, furnishing the argument that
there was a hereditary taint, or predisposition. Counsel for defense asked the
court to rule that if the jury had a doubt as to his sanity, it should operate
to reduce the grade of the offense to murder in the second degree.
Judge Dean refused the point. Counsel endeavored to have the case reviewed
by the supreme court, but the preliminary requisites could not be complied with
, and the judgment of the court was carried into effect on the 12th of Februarv,
1885.

We might add that there has been a fifth conviction of murder
in the first degree, in the c case of Commonwealth vs. Frank Wilson. As the
case is still pend ing, we forbear to note it
further.

Many other criminal prosecutions have been tried, which at
the time engaged able counsel and elicited more than ordinary attention, but we
do not find it necessary to particularize.

In 1874, we had the railroad riots hit Altoona and along the
line of the railroad to Pittsburg. This gave rise to numerous prosecutions and
the conviction of many persons engaged in those lawless and turbulent
acts. These prosecutions were tried at the first court held in the present
courthouse, which had just been completed and dedicated with the
formal ceremonies reported and filed among the records of the court .It was on this
occasion that Judge Dean delivered the address referred to in this
history and Judge Black was present for the last time in the county
seat.

A great many civil cases have been tried, and some of
them conspicuously memorable The case of Summerville vs. Jackson, tried in
1849,
was perhaps the first of that class. It was an action of ejectment to recover
the posession of about 160 acres of land near Gaysport. The case turned
mainly upon the question of fraud in defendant's acquisition of
his title. And the jury found with the plaintiff. The judgment
was affirmed in the supreme court to 1850. Mr. Miles represented the
defendant, and Mr. Blair and

Mr. Thaddeus Stevens the plaintiffs. It is said Mr. Blair's
triumph in this case secured him his subsequent professional success and
eminence as a lawyer. Though Mr. Stevens has acquired his greatest renown
since that date, he was then distinguished for great professional ability.
The
writer, then a boy, remembers the peroration of his argument in this case. As he
stood before

11

the jury he was tall and imposing in his appearance, and his
face, though white with impassioned reeling, impressed the possession of great
intellect. He spoke in low and solemn tones, and he depicted so darkly what he
denominated as the fraud in the case that he seemed to bring the jury under the
spell of an unnatural power and left them terrified and bound.

The case of Rauch vs. Lloyd & Hill was long a familiar
case. Little Charley Rauch, a boy of 5 years of age, crawled under
defendant's car at the crossing, going for shavings for his mother. While just
under the cars, defendant's servants moved the train and his legs were cut off.
Mr. Blair and Mr. Banks were their respective counsel. There was long-protracted
litigation, both in this and the supreme court, but the case was finally
settled.

Farrell vs. Lloyd was also long a famous case. It arose upon
the question whether there was a resulting trust in the purchase of land, and
knowledge by the vender. In the name of Farrell vs. Lloyd and Lloyd vs. Lynch it
was tried several times in the court below, and was four times in the supreme
court. Messr. Hall and Neff appeared for Farrell and Lynch; and for Lloyd, Mr.
Blair. With the latter gentleman, later, other counsel was
associated.

Another case was Louden et al. vs. Blair Iron & Coal Co.
It was tried three times below, and argued twice in the supreme court - the
judgment for plaintiff being there first reversed, and finally affirmed. It was
an action of trespass for removing ore from plaintiff's land. The verdict was
for about $14,000.

The case involving the largest amount of money was the suit
brought by James Gardnee for use vs. John Lloyd. The defendant was one of a
large number of persons, who had entered intoa written guaranty that William M
Lloyd, a suspended banker, would comply with the terms of a settlement by
extension of time, and pay the creditors certain sums periodically as therein
stipulated The aggregate of these guaranties was $425,000, and the suit against
Mr. Lloyd was a test suit. The defense was, true it was, the
signers of paper had offered to guarantee the faithful performance of the terms
of extension entered into by W. M. Lloyd, but there had been no formal
acceptance of the offer by the creditors, and lacking that element of
completeness to give it binding efficacy, there could be no recovery.

About two weeks were consumed in the trial. The preparation
of the case was one of unparalled extent, There were over twelve hundred
creditors of Lloyd, and the notices, exhibits and other papers in the case, many
of which were printed, numbered over a thousand; and all this prodigious labor
was performed mainly by the late George A. Reade, of Ebensburg. It seemed to
suit his indefatigable nature. Mr. Blair, Mr. Neff Mr. Baldrige represented the
defendant and with Mr. Read for the plaintiff, were associated the late Mr.
Speer, of Huntingdon, Judge Bell and myself. It only remains to be said Judge
Dean affirmed the principle invoked by the defendant, and so instructed the
jury. We carried the case to the supreme, court, but that tribunal affirmed the
judgment.

There have been other very important suits, among which were
actions affecting the interests of the Pennsylvania Railroad company, the
Wopsononock Railroad company, and the City of Altoona. Among the latter was the
case of The City vs. Bowman, involving the legality of the passage of an
ordinance. It was finally decided against the city, causing a municipal loss of
over $200,000. But we will not pursue this branch of our review
further.

The legal business of the county has grown with the increase
of population. Especially has this been the case during the period elapsing
since Judge Dean's historical address in 1877. Beginning with it January
of that year and ending with the January term of the the current year,
(1896) there have been entered suits and judgments 48,514. Of these the
largest number was in 1894 - 3,816. The present practice of monthly return days
with the requirements of the new procedure act has greatly facilitated the
dispatch of business.

There was no equity practice till 1865. Since that time
there have been filed 256 bills, of which the greatest number - 28 - were
filed in 1893. The increased litigation has compelled longer sessions of
court and during the last two years the court has sat about 140 days in each
year.

There have been but five judges since the organization of
the county. Judge J. S. Black was the first to occupy the bench. He was
succeeded by George Taylor and he by John Dean for two consecutive terms. In
March 1892 he was elected a justice of the supreme court and was succeeded in
the court by the writer who served till the election of the present incumbent,
Martin Bell. Mr. Bell was the district attorney from January 1887 to January
1890.

Since Judge Dean's review of the membership of the bar in
1877, there have been 62 admissions, of which 34 were residents of the county.
Since 1877, 18 members have died.

The question then with the judge was, who had the honor of
being the father of the bar? It lay between Banks, Calvin and McMurtrie, but
these three prominent names have since disappeared from the roll. It is proper
now to determine who is the father of the bar; and by virtue of my position as
its latest historian, I may be allowed the right of decision and henceforth, my
brethren are lawfully authorized to award that distinguished recognition to
Brother Daniel J. Neff.

Of the original members of the bar in this county, not one
survives unless I except Mr. Coffey, now resident in Washington, D. C. Of the
subsequent additions, many moved away. Some never came into prominence, whilst
others became conspicuous, either as practitioners or as incumbents of public
office.

In March, 1890, Mr. Calvin died, and he was followed by Mr.
S. M. Woodcock in February, Mr. H.H. Herr in October, and Mr. S. S. Blair
in December of the same year. This was regarded as an unusual mortality.
Mr. Banks and Mr. McMurtrie both died in 1880, whilst Mr. Cresswell,
their contemporary, died in 1882, and Mr. Brotherline, in 1879.

Mr. Hewit died after a very short illness in March, 1894,
and Mr. Baldrige died suddenly in March, 1895.

My predecessor has spoken of the older members who have
departed, and we can only make reference to a few of those who have since
appeared to take their places.

Both Mr. Hewit and Mr. Baldrige were prominent members of
the bar, and enjoyed the public confidence to a large degree.

Mr. Hewit was a gentleman of great political ambition. He
was district attorney for two terms, and was a member of the
legislature in 1871, 1879, 1881, and 1893, and speaker of the house in
1881. He was succeeded in his office by his son, Oliver H. Hewit.

L. W. Hall was for many years an active practitioner at
this bar, and whilst here was elected to the senate, of which body he was
speaker in 1867. He since removed to Harrisburg, where he now resides and
practices. He is the resident attorney of the Pennsylvania Railroad company in
Dauphin county.

J. F. Milliken was colonel of the Fifth regiment and
district attorney of the county from 1874 to 1877. It was during his term that
the extraordinarily large number of prosecutions was brought for violation of
the liquor law. The railroad rioters were prosecuted during the last year of his
term. He afterwards went to Egypt, but now resides in New York.

Mr. Alexander was the district attorney who preceded him. He
was long known as the senior partner in the law firm of Alexander&
Herr. Within the last year he removed to Lancaster.

Thomas McCamant became the auditor general of the
state in 1888 and now resides in Harrisburg

Edmund Shaw, a prominent member of the bar, and a union
soldier in the late war, was a member of the legislature for the terms of
1885 and 1887.

Mr. G. H. Spang removed to this county from Bedford in
1883. He was elected to the legislature from that county in 1875 and
1877,

J. D. Hicks came to the bar in 1873, after the close of the
war, in which he served as a union soldier. He was district attorney from
1880 till 1886. In the fall of l892 he was elected a member of congress from
this congressional district, and reelected in 1894.

12

J. K. Patterson, was elected to the legislature in
1894.

W. S . Hammond is the present district attorney, having
just entered upon his second term.

I could with pleasure name other
bright and rising members of the bar, but time will not permit, and besides I
will be pardoned for grouping here a few only of those who are best known by
their long and active professional services and residence in the
county.

The present prothonotary is Jesse L. Hartman, an urbane and
efficient officer. Two deputy prothonotaries are worthy of special
notice.

Stephen Africa came here in 1850 and remained till about
1870. He was a most competent officer, understanding fully the intricate methods
and details of the office. His preparation for the quarterly terms embraced,
among other things, the making of a dozen or two quill pens, which his skill
alone could accomplish. These were laid out for the judges, counsel and ,jurors.
A steel pen was not yet in favor though now extremes have met in the stylus of
the ancient and the steel of the modern.

The other deputy referred to is Mr. Cornelius D. Bowers. He
came here from Philadelphia, and is 58 years old. He has been a printer by
profession and was an honorably discharged and wounded soldier in the
Eighty-fourth regiment of this state He has spent twenty-eight years of his life
in the recorder's and prothonotary's office. He is familiar with all the duties
of his present position, and by his courtesy and faithfulness he has won the
confidence of the court and the bar and the respect of the public.

Mr. Jones Rollins, now deceased, was for nineteen years
crier of the court and librarian. He was a most intelligent and
obliging officer and gentleman.

The present recorder and register of wills is Mr.
William H. Irwin. The sheriff is G. T. Bell with his deputies I. N. Eby and
W. A. Smith. The county commissioners are James Funk, M. H. Fagley and John
Hurd. The county treasurer is John T. Akers.

Thus I have endeavored to recall some of the persons and
incidents of the past. The retrospet is a changeful one. The faces and voices
which make up one period, gradually pass to give way to
another; and those everchanging series like relentless fate, destroy
the familiar past, and replace it with the new and strange
present.

But it must be so. This bar will grow with the county's
growth. Increasing prosperity will be accompanied by increasing population, and
the public business will be manifested in the courts.

The younger members of the bar today will impose upon
themselves the industry and zeal of those who have preceded them. Asthere have been lustrous names in the past, there
shall be more in the future. If to any extent the bar of the past has
sought to maintain the highest grade of learning and integrity; so the future
bar should jealously refuse to lower that standard. The entrance way to its
privileges and powers is controlled by the membership, and when the
unworthy or the ignorant seek to set their feet within those precincts-which are
traditionally sacred to those only who have education, mind and learning, with
high professional pride and honor-both court and bar will I interpose their
steadfast prohibition.

The perpetuation of a bar which is measured by such a
standard will not only add to its own high character and adornment, but
will win the confidence of the great public, who intrust freely to honest
and capable lawyers that vast variety of intricate questions which
constantly arise to affect their lives, their liberty and their property.

Gentlemen of the present bar - animated by such ennobling
aims, what shall be said of us and those, who follow us fifty years from
to-day?

Historical Address,
Delivered by Justice John Dean at Hollidaysburg, June
12, 1896. Blair County and its People.

MY FRIENDS: Accepting the assignment of an address on the
history of our county, I have endeavored to perform that durty to the best of my
albility, in view of the circumstances. A history of the county would
involve a narrative of the leading incidents of its growth from the
period of its first settlement, or its first settlers, running back to
about 1768. A chronological statement of important events during that period,
important not only because of import to those who took part in them, but to us,
because of their effect on our present condition, would take, even in its most
concise form, five or six hours to deliver, instead of the less than one,
which from the, necessity of the case the committee has allotted me. Therefore,
I have eliminated from my subject all but one phase of it; fit in so doing I
have put aside much that is of historical interest, such as the source of
our land titles in the different townships; how the Penns acquired them; how the
first grantees under the terms took them: to what restrictions and reservations
some of them were subject. This is an especially interesting topic, not only to
the lawyer, but to the intelligent layman. How Judge Wilson, one of the first
judges of the supreme court of the United States, could take upand have patented
to him more than 100,000 acres of land, a large part of it within the
boundaries of our county, when the act of assembly forbade the issue of
a warrant for more than 433 acres to one individual, and made void the
title to all in excess of that. How the Hollidays, who settled upon and really
obtained title to 2,000 acres of the land upon part of which this court
house stands, afterwards lost that title; how the original owners,
bringing with them the customs and legal notions of England, Scotland and
Ireland sought, in some instances to impress upon their lands the law, of
primogeniture and entail, and how their purpose was defeated by the legislature
and the courts of the commonwealth; how and why Tyrone township, that
beautiful valley known for a hundred years as Sinking Valley, is one of
the Penn Manors, how it came to be such, and the nature of the vexatious
restrictions upon its titles came to exist. All this, and much more, would be a
part of the proper history of the county, and would be interesting,
but they must be set aside.

I take up and speak of that part of the history of
our county which to me is always the most interesting. Whether the
people about whom I speak or wish to learn be an ancient one, and centuries
ago diappeared from the earth, or be a present dominant one, who have for
hundreds of years been advancing in civilization, I want to know as much as
possible of their daily lives, their customs, religion, manners: how they
acted in their domestic relations; how they cooked, ate and drank, and
protected themselves from the weather. So in the brief time before me I shall
endeavor to present to you the daily lives of our predecessors on the
territory which now forms our county.

The population in the first thirty years of its
existence had reached about 3000. This population consisted almost wholly
of original settlers, their wives and children: that is,
those who had purchased their lands from the Penns or the commonwealth,
settled upon and improved them, and still occupied them, of having
died, they were occupied by their families. At the date Penn
obtained his charter for his colony from Charles II, in England amd on the
continent, as the old hynin has it, " Religion was the chief concern of
mortals here below;" not exactly the mortal's own religion, but chiefly that, of
his neighbors; no one had any doubt as to his own; he only doubted as to whether
his neighbor's religious belief was orthodox; if it differed from his, his
neighbor, being wrong, must be brought to his way of thinking, or his neignbor's
soul was in danger of everlasting perdition.

13

Hence it was an age of religious persecution; of inimical
laws against heretics by those in power. And it mattered very little, so
far as the persecution was concerned, which party was in power. Catholics
persectuted Protestants; protestants persecuted Catholics, and each other; in
England all sects detested and persecuted the Quakers. When this spirit of
religious persecution was rife, in the year 1681, Penn, who had been persecuted
and imprisoned for his religion, acquired the patent to Pennsylvania, and
commenced to colonize it, by inviting immigrants, not only members of his own
sect, but of all Sects, promising to all freedom of conscience in religion,
which, promise he and his sons in the proprietorship faithfully kept. Penn,
while in prison for refusing to take an oath, ten years befor the date of
his charter, had written a pamphlet advocating the largest liberty of conscience
in religious belief; from this position he never swerved.

It is a remarkable fact, that the Quaker, whose
religious belief excludes all dogma resting wholly on the "innerlight," and
the Catholics under Lord Baltimore, who settled Maryland, and whose
religious belief rests almost wholly on authoritatively defined doctrine and
dogma, should have given to the world within a few years of each other, the
first examples of complete religious toleration in the new world. Not
a single one of the other colonies did it. I use the word "complete" religious
toleration, as applied to the facts of that age. The act of toleration in
Maryland declared that: "No person or persons whatsoever,
professing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall from henceforth be in any way
troubled or molested or discountenanced for and in respect of his or her
religion, nor in the free exercise thereof; nor in any way compelled
to the belief or exercise of any other religion against his or
her consent." This would not tolerate the Jew nor the Deist. But the
numbers of these were so insignificant at that day, that it is altogether
probable there was no intention to exclude them; they weret simply not
thought of.

Under Penn's great principle of religious toleration,
emigrants began to pour into Pennsylvania from almost all European races.
Quakers, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Tunkers,
Catholics and Moravians in religious creed;Dutch,
English, Irish, Scotch, Scotch-Irish, Swedes, Welsh and
Germans. Such a conglomer ation of races and religions settled no other of the
original colonies. Within the next hundredyears, there
reached the territory now composing our county, Presbyterians, Tunkers,
Lutherans and Catholics in religion. And in race there were Scotch,
Scotch-Irish, Irish and Germans. The Cove, from North VWoodbury township to
Williamsburg, was mainly originally settled by German Tunkers; what is now
Catharine township , Tyrone township, Logan township, Allegheny township, the
land around Hollidaysburg and part of Frankstown township, by Scotch-Irish; that
part of Frankstown township known as Scotch Valley, by Scotch. In the territory
now known as Greenfield and Juniata townships many Lutherans settled. Some
of them also settled in Frankstown township and Sinking Valley.
Blair township was settledprincipally by Irish
Catholics in the latter part of the last century and most of the
descendants of the original settler, still reside there. Besides these, Irish
Catholics appear early in this century, from the old assessment books
scattered all over the county; especially at the early iron works, furnaces and
forges.

As to the German
element, most authorities estimate that at the commencement of the revolutionary war
it constituted from a third to a half of the population of the state. I would
judge, in looking over the assessment of 1847, the first after the organization
of the county, it numbered fully one-third of our population. At anearly day the Germans sought exclusiveness, preserved their
own language, and neither sought nor desired intercouse with others; especially
was this the case with theTunkers; their principles were in one respect not
unlike those of the Quakers; they were opposed to war, but they went further;
they were non-resistants; whole families of them were
massacred and scalped by the Indians in the Cove and they resisted not; a dozen
savages would devastate and destroy a settlement containing thirty men without a
hand
being raised on their part. To every appeal to their Courage and manhood in the
frontier days the invariable answer was, " Gottes will seti gethan" (God's
will be done). While we cannot but admire steadfast adherence to principle, we
cannot fail to see they weroe utterly out of place as frontiersmen. These are
not the people who conquer homes in a new territory with a savage foe
facing them, and if they had not had for neighbors men of a different stamp the
settlement of this great commonwealth would have been delayed half a
century.

They are, however, the very embodiment of thrift and
industry, and as cultivators of the soil have had no equals in the United
States. Travel through the Cove, where their descendants still live on the
splendid limestone farms; notice the fences, straight, with no broken rails; the
large bank barns, generally painted red, a touch of old country color; houses
often of a size, that a half dozen would go inside the big barn, but always
neat, and presenting an air of comfort; what sleek, contented cattle; heavy, fat
horses. And these honest, simple people are the soul of hospitality; enter their
houses, whether for a meal or lodging, without many words you feel you are
welcome. The food, though plain, always appetizing and well cooked; the liquid
beverages, cider and milk: the meals were not French, principally napkins,
cut-glass and flowers; it was beef or pork, potatoes, dried apples or snits, the
finest of bread in huge loaves, and large wheat flour cakes. Nearly all their
clothing was made on the farm from the wool clipped from their own sheep,
their shoes from hides taken from the cattle on the farm, and then to the
nearest tannery to be made into leather. Often - at least such was the case
thirty-five years ago - the women of the house did not speak English, and but
poorly understood it; Pennsylvania Dutch was the language, of a century;
it is probably much the same now, for these people loathe change. In many
respects, they excel in good citizenship; they are never found in the courts,
civil or criminal; their disputes among themselves are settled by the
congregation; often outsiders impose on them, feeling sure they will not seek
redress at law. They are benevolent; they would consider it disgraceful for any
of their own poor to reach the almshouse; but towards those without the pale
they are also kind and charitable.

Their taxes are always paid promptly, notwithstanding some
grumbling at times at the amount. They hate debt, and seldom buy what they
cannot pay for. Many years ago they did not vote, but this rule of their church
is gradually becoming obsolete. They are still averse to serving on juries
and I know of no instance in this county where they have accepted public
office, though in other portions of the state they have done so. They were from
the beginning opposed to public schools. In 1857, when superintendent of
schools, I often visited them in their houses and conversed with them on the
subject. Always hospitable and kind, still I remember of no instance in which I
succeeded in persuading the elder members of the faith to aid in promoting the
cause of education. The fact is, their ancestors had been persecuted
bitterly in Germany by both Catholics and Lutherans; in the hands of these
religionists were the government and all instritutions of learning; by
tradition, they associated much learning with despotic power and cruel
persecution, and they abhorred it. But in the last thirty-five years this hostility has in a great
part disappeared; the younger generation, more acute in its perceptions, is more
favorable to education: these citizens, before long, we may hope,
will take their proper place in the government of a great commonwealth to
whose material wealth they have so largely contributed. I yet expect
to see a Tunker sheriff, or at least a county commisssioner; my children, I
doubt not, will see Tunker governors, judges and congressmen.

The other branch ofGerman
religionists, the Lutherans, had no such notions as the
Tunkers. From their first coming
into the colony they took an active fighting part in affairs. In fact, when
Muhlenberg, their great preacher, arrived among them in 1742, he called them a
"rough set." He was a learned, able and pious man; it was not long until
his character was felt by his co-religionists; he organized them into
congregations

14

and sought to impress upon them the wisdom as well as duty
of becoming Americanized; he opposed, with all his great ability, that
segregation so dear to the Tunker. He taught English himself, had his children.
educated in it by an English governess. His son Peter was a prominent general in
the revolution. Many of these Lancaster and Berks German Lutherans found their
way into our valleys soon after the revolutionary war, and their names can be
traced on the assessments from these counties. They were a far better class of
citizens in one particular than the Tunkers; they took part in government,
local, county and state; always voted; were always ready to take up arms in
defense of homes and country.

Professor Wickersham. in his
"History of Education in Pennsylvania," says: "The Germans, when they first came to
Pennsylvania, were no more opposed to education than other races. But, wherever
they refused to learn English. they deteriorated and became obstructionists of
progress." I think this is applicable to Germans others than Tunkers; but the
opposition of the latter I know personally, was often put upon the ground that
education was hurtful. Confining themselves to German certainly tended to
isolation and narrowness; they had not the Englishman's or Irishman's instinct
for politics and government, and, by self isolation, their children did not
acquire it. Composing so large a part of the population of the commonwealth
almost from its foundation, they have never taken that part in its government
their numbers and wealth warranted. Wherever they abandoned their exclusiveness,
and by education, business associations and intermarriages, mixed with other
races and their descendents, their natural capacity for science and affairs
becomes undeniable. Dr. Caspar Wistar, Dr. Gross and Dr. Leidy were of
this German stock; Governors Snyder, Hiester, Shultz, Wolf,
Ritner, Shunk and Hartranft were also. But all these eschewed German
exclusiveness and Tunker opposition to war and education; they were of the
Muhlenberg party and ideas. Of the two classes of Germans, the Tunkers and the
Lutherans, with their allied sects, the Lutheran contributes most to the
greatness of a state, and is therefore the better citizen. In so far as
greatness consists in well tilled land, large and well filled barns, the Tunker
is superior. But no free commonwealth was ever built up nor long continued free,
whose citizens took no part in the government; who would vote for no candidate,
from the governor to the township supervisor. The very genius of our
constitutions: state and national, demands that all citizens who value life,
liberty and property, should take an active and intelligent part in
politics.

We next have the Scotch and
Scotch-Irish. They, as noticed, settled a large part of the most fertile part of
the county. They were all Presbyterians. I never heard of a Scotch-Irishman in
the first generation, being other than Presbyterian, until I became acquainted
with Mr.Thomas Rooney, late of this town, a most excellent man, now gone to his
rest. He was a most exemplary Lutheran, and came to this country from Ireland in
his youth. The Scotch-Irish were not all Scotch, although all who came from the
north of Ireland were so called. Many of them had emigrated to Ireland from
England in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., and were co-religionists with
those who emigrated from Scotland. Many of these Scotch emigrants were Celts of
the same race as the native Irish; the only difference was in religion. Large
numbers of these Irish settlers, Scotch and English, left Ireland in the reign
of James II., and came to Pennsylvania; this migration of the Scotch-Irish
continued for years down to the Commencement of the revolutionary war. It is
generally supposed they were all driven from Ireland by Catholic persecution but
this is not truth in all cases; many of them had taken long leases from the
English government of Irish lands in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and James I,
and these leases were expiring in those of Charles II. and James II.; the
government would not renew them, or demanded such exorbitant rents for the
future that they preferred to emigrate. And this state of affairs continued long
after Protestant ascendancy on the English throne under William and Anne.
As I always understood from the tradition in our family my paternal
great-grandfather, Matthew Dean, came to Pennsylvania about the year 1760,
because he preferred to own land here rather than lease it in Ireland. And I
have no doubt this was the case with many others of that
stock.

The Scotch -Irish were
intense Presbyterians. A copy of the Confession of Faith, with the Larger
and Shorter Catechism, was in every Presbyterian family in my boyhood. The
copy in our family was quite old; it bore a London publisher's imprint,
and was said to have been brought from Ireland by my mother's ancestors. I don't
remember that the doctrine was expressly taught - rather think it was
not - but I got the impression somehow, from my drilling before I was 12 years
old, that while those outside of the Presbyterian church might be saved, their
case was an exceedingly doubtful one. I pitied my Methodist, Lutheran and
Catholic boy companions, because, not being Presbyterian boys, they
were in peril of everlasting punishment. I can realize, now,
from my own teachings, which must havebeen
greatly moderated in their tone by nearly a century of New World liberty, how
intolerant, cruel andbigoted must have been the
attitude of the religious sects of Europe in the previous century. No one who
has read history doubts that, in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, religious persecution was the rule, toleration a
rare exception: Catholics killed Protestants, Protestants or dissenters from the
Established Church killed Catholics; the Church of England killed both. and all
because of a difference of creed as to the authority of the pope, the efficacy
of the sacraments, or the interpretation of revelation.

And on their theory,
logically, they were right. They asumed their particular creed was undoubtedly
orthodox; every one that differed from it was rank heresy; whosoever believed in
and practiced the heresy would incur eternal damnation; if no one but the
then holder of the false religion should believe in it the effect would be
limited, but if the heretic should go on propagating the heresy, and those
imbibing it should socontinue, the result would
be millions of souls would be destroyed. "It is my duty to God," they reasoned,
"to exterminate this soul destroying heresy and thereby save millions of
souls." And they at once proceeded to perform their duty by cutting off the
heads of the heretics. And assuming their premises to be correct, theywere right, whether Catholic or Protestant. It took a
long time, almost a century and a half of religious
civilization, before the large majority of Christians of all creeds fully
comprehended that there was no divine authority committed to any man or
body of men to determine that another man would certainly be damned because of
his religious creed; that the Great Judge had reserved that attribute of
sovereignty to himself, and that the individual conscience was answerable to him
alone, for he alone can determine certainly the wickedness of the offense and
therefore can alone justly fix the punishment.

But out of these
religious wars, persecutions and cruelties, came the Scotch-Irishman into the
beautiful valleys of our county. They wanted a fertile soil, and they
got it; they wanted to own it; in that their desire was
accomplished. The first settlers had to war with the Indians. There was no
"Gaffes wille sei Gethan," with them, as with their Tunker co-settlers. Their
idea was, "The Lord hath given to his saints the heathenfor an inheritance." They had not a spark of doubt who were
the saints, nor who were the heathen. Their only season of respite from war in
the early years was in the winter; the Indians seldom made a winter campaign;
but in sowing and reaping, their fields were guarded by the boys as
sentinels. Many of them were killed by the cunning and cruel
foe. Not a half mile from where we are now assembled, part of the
Holliday familywas massacred; in Dell Delight, one of the Moores; in
Catharine township, half of mygreat-grandfather's
family was killed and scalped, and his house burned. Permit me to show
howclosely tradition connects events; the
massacre of the Dean family
occurred in the autumn of 1780, almost 115 years ago; my
great-grandmother and four of her children were in the house, her husband
and three children in the corn field; while they were in the corn field,
the Indians killed and scalped all in the house, and set it on fire, without
discovering those in the cornfield.

15

One of the girls in the corn field was Polly, who married
Hugh Means, a farmer in the lower end of Sinking Valley. I visited her more
than once from 1844 to 1848, about which time she died, I being, then 10 to 12
years of age and she probably 80; more than once, she narrated to me all the
sickening details of the massacre, as far as she or any one knew them. So that
tradition in this instance, through but two persons, runs back 116 years to a
terrible event in a family. I now tell it to my children, and they pass it on,
so that three or four lives will possibly reach 250 years. Some of the details
of the story may be lost, some possibly added, but the substance will remain
correct. I have frequently, of late years, thought of this, when I have
heard scientists hoot at the value of tradition as testimony to historical
facts, arguing that written evidence alone can be relied on. Tradition, in the
larger number of instances, has the kernel of truth. But this is a digression.

To hear the orators of the Scotch-Irish at times one would
be led to think they were the embodiment of all the virtues; that but for them
there would have been no Pennsylvania, and possibly no nation. In these claims
there is much pardonable exaggeration.

In their domestic lives the Scotch-Irish were probably more
considerate of the comfort of the women of the household than the Tunkers; they
were always more liberal in expenditure: they generally ate the best of the
product of their farms and sold the poorest; whisky distilled on the farm, or
very near it, was used without stint; they favored education. The schoolmaster
was installed as soon as possible after a settlement was made, and there were
but few of the second generation who could not read, write and cipher. They had
one most erroneous idea brought with them from the old country; that is, that
the girls could marry and needed no estate; so in their wills in the early
part ofthe century you will find they generally gave about
nine-tenths of

their estate to the sons and divided the remaining tenth
among the daughters. I can even show you two or three wills of this kind
probated after Scotch-Irishmen's decease subsequent to the
organization of this county.

Sargent, in his "Introductory Memoir to the Journal of
Braddock's Expedition," says: 'They were a hardy, brave, hot-headed race,
excitable in temper, unrestrainable in passion, invincible in prejudice.
Their hand opened as impetuously to a friend as it clinched against an enemy. If
often rude and lawless, it was partly the fault of their position. They hated
the Indian while they despised him, and it does not seem, in their dealings with
this race, as though there were any sentiments of honor or
magnanimity in their bosoms that could hold way against their
passionate, blind resentment. Impatient of restraint, rebellious
against everything that in their eyes bore the semblance of injustice, we find
these men readiest among ready on the battlefields of the
Revolution. If they had faults, a lack of patriotism or of courage was not among
the number."

Scotch-Irishman, as a rule, protest
against this picture as one that does them gross injustice. It is perhaps
over-drawn against them, but it comes nearer a presentation of their true
character than the indiscriminate laudation of their own orators. I feel
warranted in thus speaking, because of my own blood, being Scotch-Irish on both
paternal and maternal sides of my ancestry. While all the first settlers had
passed away
before my years of recollection, I saw and knew some of their immediate
children, and many of their grand-children. My uncle, Samuel Dean, who lived to
an advanced age, was born in the year 1800. James M. Bell, my preceptor in the
law, in the year 1799. My father 1808. Tobias Foreman, late of Huntingdon county, lived
with and was reared by my grandfather; James Clark, grandfather of John Clark of
Williamsburg, an old revolutionary soldier, an uncle of my father,
was often at our house; he was vivacious, and a great narrator of past
events; these all knew and mingled with the original settlers of Sinking Valley,
Canoe Valley, and Frankstown township. I have heard them tell of their domestic
life, of their political differences, local feuds and church disputes. Sargent's
description, from my own opinion of mature years, approaches
accuracy,

Mr. Sydney George Fisher, in his most valuable book. "The
Making of Pennsylvania" says: "There is no doubt the Scotch-Irish were rough,
but roughness is not always a serious vice and there are various degrees of it.
They had the lands of the Irish rebels given to them; they had entered on them
with a strong hand, and they had grown accustomed to maintaining themselves among
a hostile population from whom they expected but little consideration. They were
not much addicted to politeness or asking leave for what they took, and they
entered Pennsylvania in a manner that was rather irritating to the proprietors.
Large numbers of them marched to the York Barrens, in what was then Lancaster
county, near the Maryland boundary line, without first offering to buy the land
from Penn. When spoken to on the subject, they replied that Penn had solicited
colonists and they had come accordingly. A more serious offense was their
settling without purchase on the lands of the Indians, an intrusion which is
generally believed to have caused several massacres."

In their merry-makings
they were rude; a rough and tumble fight with fists was not unusual; whisky was
among them a beverage partaken of on all occasions, whether feast, wedding or
funeral; when a boy, within a radius of two miles of where I went to school,
there were five distillieries owned by Scotch-Irish Presbyterians and
Pennsylvania Germans. The Washingtonian temperance reform in 1843 and 1844
closed all but one of these. But without this, it is probable they would have
closed. New means of transportaion enabled them to ship their rye to market in
bulk, instead of' concentrating it into a small package of
whisky.

As noticed, the Tunkers would not vote or hold office. No
one ever said that of a Scotch-Irishman; I have never known of his refusal to
vote at least once, and he was willing to hold as many offices as he was
eligible to. The records of this county since its organization will, I think,
bear me out in this statement. Although many of them deny it, the
Tunkers excelled them as farmers. As a rule, the Scotch-Irish farmers, after
three generations, are giving way, and their places are being taken by
others.

The Catholic Irish settled what is now Blair township about
the close of the revolutionary war; the borough of Newry is, next to Frankstown,
the oldest village in the county. I have heard the late James M. Hewit say
that when a boy he went to Newry to see a circus; Hollidaysburg was then too
insignificant to warrant the showmen in stopping; Newry was the larger town.
This Irish settlement for a time throve and was prosperous, but the location of
the Canal and the Portage road north of it, with their junction at
Hollidaysburg, arrested its growth and Hollidaysburg forged ahead, just as the
location of the main line of the Pennsylvania railroad six miles north of
Hollidaysburg created Altoona, leaving Hollidaysburg standing still. But the
Catholic Irish settlement at Newry, and Blair township, for many years, was a
very importnat part of Huntingdon County. The old settlers were progressive and
exemplary citizens, none better; the Cassidays, McIntoshes, Conrads, McGraws,
Malones and others, were all active in the formation of our new county. Besides
these Catholics, as I have already said, there were others scattered all over
the county, but for many years Newry had the only Catholic church. There was,
when I was a boy, a small Catholic graveyard in Williamsburg, how old I do not
know; but here, every now and then, some devout member of the church was laid to
rest in consecrated ground. A neat church has been erected there within thirty
years.

It is but a century ago that the two races, hostile in
religion, and hating each other in Ireland, again met. In Ireland they bad been
implacable foes, but when they reached this New World of religious liberty,
where every one had a right to pursue his own happiness, their resentments seem
to have disappeared, and they labored together for the common good. Up until
1854 I never heard of religious prosciption, or religious antagonism in
politics. I know I have seen my father, at an early day, in consultation with
the Catholic McKiernans and Harbisons relative to the promotion of education in
the common schools, and other public measures affecting the township.

16

But in 1854 a wave of intolerance,
bigotry and proscription passed over the state. The Catholic was persecuted,
just as far as our constitution permitted; he was not imprisoned, not killed on
account of his religion but he was voted out of every office he could possibly
aspire to from state to township. It was a shameful persecution, and lasted
about three years; in less than five years thereafter those most active in the
movement were busy denying they had any connection with it. In less than ten
years came the war for the preservation of the union. Our Catholic fellow
citizens all around us, then, by their patriotism at home in promoting
enlistments, their courage on many a bloody battlefield, gave the lie to all
accusationsmade against them in the know
nothing crusade. Good citiczenship is not determined by creed;
conscience and capacity for public service are not measured by doctrine or
dogma. All religious proscription is utterly at war with the fundamental
principles of our constitution. And whether our remote ancestors cut each
other's heads off in Ireland two hundred years ago because one did not acknowledge the
spiritual authority of the pope, and the other refused to acknowledge the
spiritual authority of a presbytery, or their descendants figuratively at this
day cut each other's political heads off at the polls, the principle is
precisely the same, religious bigotry and proscription. I speak now as a citizen
of this growing county and this grand old commonwealth in which I was born and
bred. No one doubts my religious creed; of a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian ancestry,
religious training and education, I could not be other and do not wish to be
other than Presbyterian. At the same time, with all my years of study,
experience and thought, I cannot but tremble when I see the least sign of a
revival of that intolerant religious spirit which for centuries bathed Europe in
blood. Lincoln said of slavery, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I
do not believe a house divided against itself on a religious question can stand.
Once religious belief is political issue; once you determine a man's fitness for
office by his opinion on the doctrine of the "real presence," - intercesssion of
the saints, of the Virgin Mary, the very foundation of our free institutions
disappears. Take away that stone, laid in all its breadth and beauty by Penn,
and on which the great and glorious edifice of this free commonwealth has been
builded, grand as is the super-structure it may fall: if it do not fall, it will
cease to grow; there will be no further additions, wherein may be sheltered and
made happy the sons of men.

Our Bill of Rights declares: "All men have a natural and
indefeasible right to worst Atmighty God according to the dictates of their own
consciences.

"No person who acknowledges the being of a God and a future
state of rewards and punishments shall, on account of his religious sentiments,
be disqualified for any office or place of trust or profit under this
commonwealth."

Under this benificent declaration, or the substance of it,
declared by the wise founder of our state, the whole commonwealth has grown and
prospered. Any departure from it must be a step backward into a dark age of
persecution and bloodshed, when ignorance undertook to fashion men's consciences
by cruelty and barbarity.

"Lord," said the woman of Sichem, "our fathers worshipped
in this mountain, and ye say that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to
worship." Jesus replied, "Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall
worship neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem, but when the true
worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth."

It is almost nineteen centuries since the great Founder of
Christianity proclaimed this sum of all religion at Jacob's Well, yet, during
all those centuries, it is only an occasional glimpse we get of it in practice.
The Tunkers, Lutherans, Scotch-Irish and Catholic Irish of this county lived up
to it for almost seventy-five years, or until 1854. May we not hope, that since
the miserable failure then to adopt a religious test in politics none other will
ever be attempted.

Such were the men, such
their religion, such the race of the
hardy people who originally settled the territory which now forms our
county. When the county was organized in 1846 many of the descendants of
the original Germans and Scotch-Irish had become Methodists, and
some of them Baptists. The Methodist was a missionary church; its circuit riders
had penetrated into all corners of the county by that time; their
congregations were organized in almost every school district: they
were specially effective at the iro works; two large settled congregations
with comfortable churches existed at Hollidaysburg and Williamsburg; but while
strong in numbers, they were generally of limited means; their influence
and wealth are mainly the growth of the last fifty years, and the same may
be said of the Baptists. Many other religious sects have also in that period
grown in numbers and importance. What I have sought specially to point out is
the kind and character of the people who, by more than seventy years of
struggle, made our county what it was in 1846, brought it to the point where its
people had a right to demand a separate county organization and the legislature
was warrantedin creating
it.

When the county was formed in 1846, in my judgment the
population was about 11,000. I think fully four-fifths of this was made up
of first settlers and their immediate descendants. The population rapidly
increased; it certainly numbers now not far from 75,000. I doubt if more
than one-third of these can trace descent to the Germans, Scotch-Irish and Irish
of the first half of the century; take away the population of Altoona and its
immediate surroundings in Logan township, of Tyrone and Bellwood, and the
last thirty years would show but little change. The greater Blair county is made
up by these progressive railroad towns. True, many of their citizens are
descendants of the original stock, but the larger proportion is from other
counties and states, and many from beyond the seas. By their joining us they
have raised our noble old county from one of the smallest to one of the greater
counties in wealth, population and enterprise. In the not distant future we
shall see it reach more than 100,000 in population. Its past rapid growth has
been due in great degree to the growth and liberal management
of
that great corporation, the Pennsylvania Railroad. Our material prosperity
and progress in the future must depend largely on the prosperity of that
enterprise. As it grows our county will grow.

But I have already wearied you in endeavoring to present in
as concise a narrative as possible a glimpse of the early physical, intellectual
and religious growth of our beloved home. In it I was born and reared; with it
are associated all my fondest recollections; to its
future cling all my most fervent hopes; if any want to point to some better,
some golden age in some other county or some other years, I have no sympathy
with them, for our county and our age, I feel sure, are the best
attainable.